


Fortune Favours The Brave

by pureklaination



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-02
Updated: 2012-10-02
Packaged: 2017-11-15 11:53:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pureklaination/pseuds/pureklaination
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine Anderson has been at Dalton his whole life. Some would say he’s privileged, but most would describe him as honourable to a fault. When a misunderstanding sees him kicked out of home and Dalton, he has to seek his cousin’s help to rebuild his life. But Mike has plans and a life of his own. Enrolling at McKinley was inevitable for Blaine, but exams, parties, summer camp, and someone falling in love with him weren’t on the agenda. Surely if he can get through this, he can get through anything. Courage</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fortune Favours The Brave

**Author's Note:**

> Fic idea originally taken from this gifset: 
> 
> http://pureklaination.tumblr.com/post/24715735721/awildcooperappears-bike-chanderson-klaine-au
> 
> Many thanks to the amazing xxxraquelita for her magnificent beta-skillz

Blaine straightened his tie and ran his hands through his hair to try and bring some order to the still somewhat puffy curls there. He really needed more gel, flattening serum, or something. Whatever it was that his mother had bought for him just wasn’t doing the job. His father hated it too, but she kept buying it for them anyway and neither really wanted to offend her by putting it straight in the trash and going back to the stashed bottles of gel they both carried.

There were only a few weeks left of the school year and Blaine had more important things to worry about. Like exams, and summer plans, and exams. With one more glance at the mirror in front of him, Blaine left the bathroom, turning off the light since he didn’t want a replay of the last time he’d forgotten and ended up getting a lecture from his parents about wasting electricity’, grabbed his Dalton school bag and walked to his car.

It was a kind of old station wagon, but it did the job and his father had spent money on it. Most student drivers had amazing cards, but no matter how well off they were, but his father's feelings had been plain; ‘you’re just going to drive it into curbs anyway. Take care of this one and we can talk about a better car.’ At least, that’s what he’d been told. Blaine didn’t dare bring up that his cousin Mike had been driving a brand new JAG for the better part of a year and it didn’t have a single mark on it.

But Mike had a job, great grades... and a girlfriend. He had a reason for the nice car, apparently. ‘Blaine didn’t hold that against him, but… dammit he worked hard for his GPA and it still wasn’t good enough. Things would have been easier if he could find some girl and try dating her, but it really wasn’t all that likely in an all-boys school. Sure, he could probably pick someone from their sister-school and then he wouldn’t even have to see her’, but -- all-boys school. And it wasn’t like he was blind.

Blaine started up the car, letting it warm from the early morning chill and picked up his phone to check it. There was a message from Nick about an early morning Warbler practice, and he was already late. Shit. He pulled out of the drive and got to school a few minutes later than he would have liked.

\---

Nick was his best friend. They could have been more at one stage, but then there was Jeff. Jeff had transferred six months prior and he was pretty much all Nick had spoken about since. Blaine sighed, stopping only at his locker before rushing to the hall for practice.

“Blaine, late again I see,” Wes said the moment he walked in, and Blaine took a seat on one of the couches available.

“Sorry, I was driving when I got the message, and couldn’t have been any earlier without breaking some serious driving laws.” Wes nodded, accepting the excuse as reasonable and continuing on about something to do with the latest song list for practicing at the local nursing home.

It would have been a little easier if Blaine wasn’t the only one doing all of the solos; he kind of had to pay attention in case there was, by some chance, a song he didn’t already know. But Nick jabbed him in the ribs and murmured quietly that he really needed to talk to him privately after practice’

Practice ended with a firm rap of the gavel from Wes, and Nick pulled Blaine out of the room in a hurry, leading him down the hall and to the left, to an empty classroom and locked the door behind them.

“Blaine, I’m ready to tell him how I feel, I just don’t know how. Help me out here; you have to have more experience at this than I do. Tell me what to do.”

“You just have to do it, Nick. Tell him that you would like to be more than friends and maybe suggest a date-type scenario on neutral territory, preferably off campus and out of uniform.”

It was generic advice but Nick was nodding along like Blaine was the holy grail of relationship advice.

“But what if he says no?”

Blaine rolled his eyes. Jeff had been heart eyeing Nick for almost as long as he had. It still didn’t explain the dull ache in his chest of having to spell that out to his friend. “It’ll be fine, just… I don’t know, initiate some sort of touch, his hand or something and if he doesn’t pull away you’ll know that he wouldn’t be adverse to maybe more touching.”

Nick looked a little panicked, like he should be taking notes. “But if I just go up to him and touch his hand and ask him if he’d like to go out on a date, isn’t that a little forward? What if he just rips his hand away? What do I do, just stop talking and pretend like I wasn’t going to go there?”

Neither boy heard the tap on the door, both a little distracted with the conversation and Blaine with trying to find some answers to give his friend.

“Look Nick.” Blaine closed the short distance between them and slipped his hand into Nick’s, which was clammy to his touch Nick didn’t pull away. “I really like you, and I would like to get some coffee with you. Friday after school? And maybe after that go and see a movie?”

They were standing really close, and Blaine’s breathing was off but hopefully that didn’t take away the sincerity from his tone. Nick was looking down at their joined hands, and he opened his mouth to reply.

“That would be the perfe-” The lock on the door clicked open and the school principal walked in, a look of rage on his face.

“Boys. You will unhand each other and I expect you both to be sitting in front of my office in ten minutes flat.”

Blaine tried. “Sir, it’s not what it looks like, I pro-”

“Save it, I’m going to have to call your parents in.” 

Shit.

\---

“No, Father- that wasn’t what happened. Yes, I was holding his hand and the door was locked, but not because we were doing anything unsavory. He just wanted to have a conversation away from the others.” Blaine sputtered out his explanation. How did talking to Nick about how to ask someone out turn into that mess?

“Blaine. You were locked in a classroom with another boy. We don’t need to go into this conversation further in a public setting, but rest assured the principal is not interested in your excuses.” His father was red-faced and there was steel to his voice that, Blaine knew from previous experience, never boded well. “Just wait until your mother hears about this.”

Blaine grimaced and shut up immediately. His mother, with her status amongst Westerville society, came down harder on him than his father ever had -- and his father was pissed. She was going to be livid.

He would be lucky to keep his car at the rate he was going.

They drove home. Blaine had been dismissed for the day to ‘consider if his actions were that of a Dalton gentleman.’ He followed his father's car to the top of the drive and pulled in directly behind him, knuckles white on the steering wheel. Usually his car would go at the back of the driveway in a small detached garage -- where it couldn’t be seen by the neighbors, Blaine figured. It was where his mother had deemed ‘its rightful place.’

His mother sat in the lounge, plates and dainty tea cups still littering the table from the morning tea she had undoubtedly held there not much earlier.

“Catherine, we need to talk, alone, and then to our young man. Blaine, take a seat on the couch and wait for us to come back.” They left the room together, and he heard his mother ask what he was doing at home at that time of the day before the office door slammed behind them.

Blaine pulled out his phone. It was still on silent from school and he left it there, god forbid it went off during the inevitable grilling he was about to receive from his parents.

Ten minutes later, his parents came out and sat on the couch opposite him.

“So you’re gay.” It wasn't a question, and Blaine looked at his mother, astonished. That was what she’d gotten from it all? It wasn’t being caught in a locked classroom with someone that had offended her delicate sensibilities, it was that the other person was a boy and they had been touching.

There was no point in lying, not to his parents -- they would have made their choices already. “Yes ma’am.”

“Don’t take that tone with me, Blaine,” she snapped. “What do we do with you now? Your little foray in school will be the talk of the neighbourhood as soon as one of your little friends opens their mouths.”

“What? Mother, it was one guy and we weren't even doing anything! He was asking for advice on how to ask someone out -- I was helping him!”

“On asking a girl out?” she asked, wiping a crumb off of the table in front of her onto the floor.

“Well... no.” Blaine’s argument probably wasn't helping, but he had to try. It had been completely innocent.

“So this other boy -- he’s gay also?”

Nick hadn’t told anyone, as far as Blaine knew, and no one deserved to hear that shit through the neighbourhood gossip mill that his mother ran under the guise of her “book club.”

“I don’t know, maybe?” That was all she needed.

“I can’t deal with you right now, Blaine. I’m going to need you to leave, immediately. Maybe your little friend can take you in, at least then you wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor.”

It felt like all of the air had been sucked out of the room. He looked at his father, usually the sane, level-headed one, but he was too busy inspecting the crumbs that had found their way to the floor to pay attention to the heart wrenching panic in his son's eyes.

“Clearly we can’t keep you at Dalton, what with your reputation there.” Blaine was gobsmacked. Was she even listening to herself? That was it? He was kicked out of his home and school and everything over one conversation?

“Mother, please, this is clearly a misunderstanding. I don’t have a reputation at Dalton, apart from impeccable grades and a leading soloist for the Warblers. You can’t just kick me out of school.”

“I can do what I want, and I do not approve of your tone, young man. I can’t kick you out of school. Your father and I, however, will no longer be paying your tuition. You have all of summer to sort yourself out with a job to continue your education there for your senior year.” She wasn’t even looking at him. “And you won’t be doing that under our roof.”

She stood, sending a cold, unyielding glance in his direction “Goodbye, Blaine.” She strolled out of the room, toward the kitchen, talking to someone about cleaning up the mess in the lounge.

Oh god, he was the mess. Appealing to his father after an outburst like that from his mother just... was not an option. The man was resolute to back up his wife in everything that she deemed appropriate. He’d done his best over the years, but after the mess that nearly broke up their marriage when Cooper had stated that he wanted to leave town and become an actor, there was no way his father would argue with her ever again.

“Father, where do I go?” Blaine’s voice came out kind of oddly pitched. He was trying to hold back the tears stinging his eyes, somewhat successfully.

His father sighed, briefly laying a hand on his shoulder and looking down at him. “I can suggest you talk to your aunt. She’s a little more forgiving than your mother. I can’t help you with this, son, just gather your things and go. It will make it easier for you in the long run.”

Easier how?

He made it to his room, going directly to his bed, where he face-planted across the covers and cried.

\---

“Mike, hey - it’s Blaine. Can you please call me back when you get this message? I’m in the neighbourhood and I need to ask a favour. I should probably just call your parents, but I was hoping to catch you first. Call me ba--” BEEP.

He knew he wouldn’t get a chance to talk to Mike until after school, and that was only if he didn’t have football, glee, or any of the other the thousand extracurricular activities he seemed to take part in on a daily basis. Or, god forbid, he was actually spending time with his family, or girlfriend, or at work.

Either way, it would probably be close to dinner time before he heard back from Mike, and that would really be cutting it close. His parents hadn’t been completely heartless; Blaine still had his car, and a credit card for what his father deemed ‘living expenses.’ His mother had tried to take it, but his father argued that it was important for him to have a minimum allowance for the basics of life. So instead, there was a $100 cap per week. Not enough for accommodation or even school, but that was the point.

He ended up at a little coffee shop just outside of Lima, the after school crowd trickling in all dressed in whatever they’d pulled off of the floor that morning -- no uniforms, no equal playing field. No zero-bullying, teamwork, or conformity to a code of conduct.

It was pretty much what Blaine was stuck with if he wanted to continue his education, and he hadn't done years of studying for anybody but himself. His perfect GPA was nothing more than constant dedication and hard work, and he was damn proud of it, to be honest.

But he technically wouldn’t attend Dalton after that year. It was public school or nothing, unless he convinced his mother to forgive him and that he could be the kind of son she wanted. Unlikely.

He was not moping -- Blaine didn’t mope. He was… contemplating. His situation looked dubious, but he was resourceful and could get through this with some flair and grace, he hoped.

Blaine was contemplating a second cup of coffee when his phone went off. It was Mike, luckily. They talked for twenty minutes and by the end of it, Mike was happy to help him present a united front to his parents over why Blaine should be able to live with them, at least for the summer. At least, unless Blaine could come to some sort of agreement with his own parents.

Turning up on his aunt and uncle’s doorstep at dinner time with a suitcase was not the best solution, but options were limited and Blaine was anxious to make sure that his they would be okay with the situation. Not that he worried that they would say no, but to have another teenager in the house, for the entire summer and beyond, that was asking a lot. Blaine was starting to think in circles, and that was doubt came into play.  
He knocked on the door and Mike answered almost immediately. “Blaine!”

Mike pulled him into a brief hug. “It’s so good to see you. I was starting to think they had you locked up in that mansion after all. He grinned and Blaine couldn’t help grin back. They’d always gotten along on the rare occasions the two families did socialize, but that hadn’t happened often. His aunt was “too liberal in her choice of men,” in his mother’s opinion, and Mike’s father very, very strict. The only thing his parents and his aunt and uncle really did agree on was the firm hand required in raising teenage boys. But Cooper had flounced off at the first hint of a career away from home, and Mike’s older sister Jade was going to a university in Chicago -- something about gifted students in line for an early graduation and a very promising career in law.

“Not locked up, I was just focusing on my studies. I really didn’t know this was going to happen… should we go and talk to your parents?” Mike nodded, and led him into the family room where his father was reading the newspaper and his mother, across a kitchen counter, was preparing dinner.

“Uncle Jason, Aunt Nadine, it’s nice to see you.” Blaine nodded at each in turn and waited until he was offered a seat next to Mike at the table across from his uncle, who was still idly thumbing through the paper. 

“I had a call from your father Blaine.” Oh, he hadn’t been expecting that. “They have kicked you out of home, for being daring enough to cause a scandal.”

That was… blunt.

Nadine piped up from the kitchen, leaning across the counter and rolling her eyes. “My sister is a moron. You’re more than welcome here, Blaine, for as long as you have need of a place to stay.”

“Nadine. I thought we would all talk about the stipulations first?” Jason looked at her, a slight crinkle in the corner of his eye showing he was trying to be stern, but failing.

“Jason, our nephew needs to know that his sexuality is irrelevant and he’s wanted somewhere,” she huffed.

Jason rolled his eyes at the boys. Mike remained oddly silent, looking down at the table. He was there for support rather than an active part of the conversation.

“Blaine, the guest room is yours; we have negotiated with Paul and Catherine that you will be enrolled at McKinley with Mike and they will pay for it. It will not be quite as prestigious as at Dalton, but it's best that you finish your education as well you can. Finishing the year at Dalton would be preferable, as you boys have end of year exams next week, but the cost of gas between Westerville and here is a bit extreme and you only have a certain amount of allowance.” Jason took a large breath in, looking between the boys for options.

“Uncle Jason, could just do my exams at Dalton then move to McKinley for next year…” “Your mother doesn’t want you going back there, Blaine.”

Blaine was frustrated. “So she would let my education suffer out of spite?”

Mike stood to help his mother with something in the kitchen, presumably setting the dining table from the clink of plates in that direction.

“You’ve always known your mother to be…difficult. I don’t know if spiteful is quite the right word for it, but I don’t think she willingly wants to sabotage you. I will talk to the principal at Dalton tomorrow and maybe we can work out some kind of correspondence to finish your classes for this year. Are you willing to put that effort in, Blaine?”

“Yes, sir. Anything to not have my grades not affected by this,” Blaine quickly agreed.

That was how Blaine Anderson found himself unpacking in the spare room of his cousin’s house that night about to embark on the most intense summer of his life.

\---

Blaine’s alarm went off at seven the next morning, and when he opened his eyes it took a moment to orientate himself. Right, he was at Mike’s. He didn’t technically have school or, well, anything that day. Jason was going to try and talk to the principal but honestly that could go either way, and until they knew for sure, the plan for him was to start at McKinley on Monday.

He barely saw Mike, who had just finished rushing through his breakfast and was heading out the door when Blaine went downstairs. He’d shouted something about picking up Tina for school and then he was gone saying something about picking up Tina for school. Jason had left before Blaine had even gotten out of bed and Nadine was nowhere to be seen.

He showered and dressed, just jeans and a t-shirt that day. There was no point in putting any effort in, nor was there any point in studying, or calling anyone. He couldn’t clean anything or be of any use. Blaine ended up back at the coffee shop before ten.

“Skipping out on McKinley? I can’t blame you, it’s a terrible school.” He looked up at the waitress in surprise.

“No, of course not, I go to Dal--” No, no he didn’t. In all technicalities, he was skipping school. It wasn’t like he was sick or anything.

She just smiled and set down the medium drip he’d ordered. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” she said, and wandered back to the counter.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out.

From Wes:  
You’re not at practice? We need you to put more effort into being here buddy, this is getting ridiculous.

Crap. He was going to have to explain to everybody without anyone knowing the truth; his mother didn’t want anyone else knowing. How was he going to explain to Nick that his parents had gone off their rails and kicked him out of the house and his school? The truth wasn’t an option. Nick would feel awful and the Warblers were going to be upset.

What if he said his cousin needed tutoring and they decided that it was easier for Blaine to move there than to drive such a large distance every day? That explanation might work for the summer, but it wouldn’t explain why he was leaving before the end of final exams. Hell, before the beginning of final exams. He was so screwed.

Just as he got back to Mike’s, Blaine’s aunt pulled up in the drive.

“Good morning, Blaine. I forgot to give you a key last night, so before Jason and I went to see the principal went out to get one cut. Now, everything went well. The Dalton headmaster is going to send your exams through to McKinley so you will be taking them at the same time as the other students.” She pulled a few bags out of the trunk and motioned for him to follow her up the front steps to the door. Blaine took the bags at the top while she looked for her keys.

“Your results will complete your schooling at Dalton and your grades will determine what classes they will put you in at McKinley. It looks as though your classes are advanced enough to be in honors level or AP classes.” Nadine dropped her bag on the kitchen counter and Blaine stood waiting to see where she would like him to put the groceries.

“Oh, just pop those on the counter, dear.” She set about putting them away, and Blaine watched to see where things were in the kitchen. “So all that being settled, you will be in McKinley as of Monday morning. You’ll have to be up early because Mike has extra practices for baseball. It’s a wonder he gets time to study at all.”

“I’ll do anything to make this easier on you guys. I promise,” Blaine said earnestly.

“Blaine relax,” she replied sharply. “We’re not going to kick you out on the street.”

He looked down at the floor in front of him, and the kitchen tiles were tasteful enough to distract him for a few moments. “Thank you.”

It was said so quietly, he hardly thought she’d heard it.

\---

Saturday, he made plans to catch up with Wes at the Lima Bean, which was the coffee shop Blaine had decided would be his new regular one. He explained that he needed to transfer schools. Wes tried to press questions, but gave up when Blaine wasn’t forthcoming with answers for them.

As he was leaving, Wes asked if they would ever see him again. Blaine tried to make a joke about coming up against them at regionals, but Wes just frowned and said goodbye.

None of the guys tried to contact him the rest of that weekend. Not even Nick.  
Sunday was long and boring. Mike was out for most of it, and Blaine couldn’t help but wonder if that was what school was going to be like the next day. Mike’s friends weren't obligated to like him -- no one was -- but it would be nice to have someone who wasn’t related to him who didn’t think he was a total twat.

Planning his outfit for the next day took up at least an hour of his afternoon, considering he wasn’t used to having options when it came to dressing for school, but he finally settled on a blue checked shirt, blue vest, and black pants. He went to the shop and bought some more of the firm hold gel he preferred for his hair, and nervously gathered up the school stuff from his bag, transferring it into a new backpack.

He whiled away the rest of the afternoon with books and TV, anxiety eating away at his insides. There was a knock at the door sometime later and he got up to answer it, happy to see Mike on the other side, ushering him inside. He took a seat by the computer and Blaine went back to sitting on his bed.

“How are you settling in? Sorry I haven’t been around this weekend, there’s a lot going on at school and I really like getting the chance to spend some time with Tina on the weekends. I don’t think it’ll be long until your friends start coming down to see you.”

“You’d be surprised,” Blaine said, bitterness clear in his tone. “They’re not interested in seeing me, Mike. I’ve not only left the school but I’ve let the team down and no matter what they say -– what the moral traditions and codes that they’ve got going on over there -- they won’t say it but…” Blaine felt tears prickling at his eyes again. It didn’t matter – he had to move on and make new friends, or at least acquaintances, because apparently he couldn’t rely on the Warblers anymore.

“Dude, what you’ve got going on is rough but it’s going to get better. Just think, one week of school, then exams, and then we’re free for the whole summer. Tina and Kurt have been going on and on about some summer camp thing that they’re counselling at, so it’s just you and me and a whole lot of free time.”

“Speak for yourself; I have to get a job. I can’t lay all of the extra expenses of having another person living here on your parents.” Everything was crap with no hope of getting better as far as he was concerned.

Mike stayed calm, unswervingly consistent in his pep talk. “You wait and see, it’ll all work out.” It was really hard to stay depressed when the guy was trying so hard, especially with the way Mike was smiling at him hopefully. “Come on, we’ll play a few rounds of Mario Kart before bed, maybe that will help you relax a little bit.”

It did help a little, but a few hours later Blaine was left alone with his nerves. At least he knew what to expect with his exams, knew the material like the back of his hand, and that had to count for something.

\---

Getting ready for school Monday morning was nothing short of terrifying. Blaine wasn’t typically an anxious person, but he had no idea what to expect. Public school had been scoffed at by his parents from a young age and he didn’t have much going for him for extracurricular activities. At a stretch he had considered auditioning for glee club for the following year. But after letting down the Warblers how could he be sure he wouldn’t do the same to the group at McKinley.  
He’d gotten up early, as suggested, to go to school with Mike. Hopefully that would help the gas in his car not run down so fast and his money to last a bit longer. The last thing he wanted to be was a burden.

The front doors of McKinley High were red -- nowhere near as big and flashy as the main gates to Dalton but twice as intimidating.

Mike was talking quickly, giving him a rundown on what to expect for the day. “You need to pick up your schedule first, not that it really matters because there is just this week, then exams run all of next. The New Directions didn’t make it to Nationals this year but we do have a wannabe exam in the form of solo projects for the week; honestly it’s a waste of time. But, apparently it counts, so we’re all working pretty hard for it. The baseball Coach has been in a bad mood with us all week so he’s scheduled extra practices in the morning as well as everything else.” He stopped in front of what looked like a locker room. “If there’s anything else you need just give me a call. I asked Tina to come in early to hang out with you, so she’ll be here soon to show you around a bit before school starts.”

Blaine had honestly never heard Mike talk so much in his life. “It’s okay, I-I’ll be okay, Mike, thanks for getting me here, everything will be fine.” At least, he hoped it would.

He got himself to the front office and they’d given him his schedule for the last week of school, which he tried desperately to figure out. There was a separate schedule for exam week and hopefully, due to the curriculum being more intense at Dalton, he would be able to be in advanced classes after the summer break. It was a lot to take in, but the principal at McKinley seemed to think it was possible. A girl with dark hair walked in, smiling when he looked up.

“Hi, you must be Blaine. Your Facebook picture was surprisingly helpful!” she said with a grin. “I’m Tina.” He didn’t know whether to be worried that she was already stalking his Facebook or impressed at her resourcefulness.

“Yeah, that’s me.” He couldn’t help smiling back; she came across really well as a first impression, blue highlights and interesting black lace dress notwithstanding.

She motioned for Blaine to pass over the schedule and he handed it over quickly, hoping she would have more luck deciphering it. “So this week is a mess, everyone is everywhere and normal classes mean nothing - so you’re probably just going to be sitting in on our regular classes. They must be pretty confident that you will be able to go into advanced placement classes next year.”

Tina ran her fingers down the days and corresponding dark blocks with writing in them. “You’ve got English, double Math, Science, and Glee today. Mike told me you might be interested in joining. Also, I can take you to the library or cafeteria if you would like to get some studying in because next week you have an English exam followed by... holy crap how many classes did you even take at your old school? You have two exams every day next week and there are notes about extra credit?” Her eyes widened.

“The curriculum at Dalton is pretty extreme, so it covered a really wide range of subjects.” Blaine shrugged.

“You’re not kidding. What about after?”

Blaine shifted his bag to the other shoulder. For someone with no regular classes, there was a lot of crap in his schoolbag. “No, not yet. I’m a sophomore but hopefully-- if all of my classes transfer over I’ll be able to take honors and advanced classes next year. If not, it will be a repeat of what I learnt last year in the advanced classes at Dalton.”

She was still side-eyeing him over the schedule. “You will have no problem being in those classes. You’re probably at a higher level than half the seniors.” Blaine shrugged again -- he liked getting good grades.

“Anyway, as I was saying, if you want to study there is the library, cafeteria, and I think they have a teacher in study hall for the over-enthusiastic ones such as yourself. But the library’s probably your best bet for minimum harassment. If you want, I could come and get you when it’s time for glee? Mr Shue won’t mind, and it’s not like we’re doing anything productive in there right now.” She just kept talking and Blaine found himself nodding along with her.

“Come on then, I’ll take you to the library and come get you at lunch time... unless you wanted to study somewhere else?”

“No that’s okay, I’ll use the library. Is there anywhere I could get a coffee first?” He could handle studying until lunchtime on his own in the library, but there was no way he was going to do it without coffee at least.  
They walked to the cafeteria and got something resembling coffee, but after a few mouthfuls Blaine pushed it to the centre of the table with disdain. It was disgusting. He was delivered to his first class, and then the library, where he lost track of time while he was buried in his books. It was remarkably quiet for such a big school, so it was surprising when he looked up to find both Tina and Mike in front of him, looking wide-eyed at the pile of books on the table.

“Lunch?” Mike prodded. Blaine nodded eagerly, as he’d forgotten to bring anything to snack on. There were at least fifteen pages of notes in front of him. When had that happened?

They went back to the cafeteria for lunch and there were people everywhere. Tina was going on about someone called Rachel who had taken over the choir room for lunch, and that she’d demanded Kurt and Mercedes go with her, so the table where they sat was going to be short a few people. Blaine was quietly picking at his sandwich when everyone sitting there started throwing names at him in an effort to introduce themselves (by far the most interesting being Puck who had winked?). He tried to keep track of them after that, but Mike said they would get on Facebook later so he could remember better.

After the bell, they all went down the hallway together toward the room they used for glee club, and settled in chairs at the back of the room.

There was an undignified squeak from a short brunette standing next to the piano, who pointed at Blaine where he was sitting next to Mike, trying to arrange his bag on the floor.

“Who are you?” Her tone was terribly demanding, and Blaine had half a mind to pick his bag up and leave before she did something truly terrifying.

“Calm down Rachel, that’s Mike’s cousin Blaine,” Tina said helpfully from where she was sitting on the other side of Mike.  
“Where is he from and why is he here?” Rachel continued, unhindered.

“He’s staying with Mike for a while and transferred from Westerville. If you want more information ask him yourself instead of being rude and demanding it.” Tina was awesome, and she was definitely on Blaine’s top ten favourite people list.

“So Blaine-” Rachel started, but then the teacher came in and distracted her.

“Take a seat guys, I want to talk about your assignments today. As you know, you will be presenting them on Friday... who are you?” Blaine sighed. He really should have let the teacher know he would be intruding on the class to prevent all the confusion.

“Blaine Anderson. Um, I’m thinking about joining the glee club next year, after a proper audition of course.” The teacher looked over at Mike, who nodded conspiratorially.

“Okay. I’m Mr Schuester and I’m the teacher for this class.” A Latina girl scoffed quietly under her breath.’  
“Santana,” Mr Schuester warned, before continuing on as if nothing had happened. Blaine sunk down a little lower in his chair, just daring to glance around at a few of the other people in the room as if to see if everything going on was normal. He looked to Mike and Tina, who smiled, and that seemed to pacify him. Turning the other way, he was surprised to see a pair of bright blue eyes trained in on him, unblinking.

Blaine looked directly back at Mr. Schuester and tried to focus on what he was saying, but his eyes betrayed him and he snuck a glance at the boy again. He wasn’t staring anymore, but there was a pink blush down his neck and he was biting his lip.

Mike leaned over, following Blaine’s gaze, and whispered, “That’s Kurt and the other one was Rachel.” Blaine’s eyes lingered over white Doc Martens and blue jeans. He was trying to look anywhere else, but Kurt was gorgeous.  
\--

That week was a nightmare. From start to finish, there was nothing more than classes, studying, and thoughts eating away at Blaine’s mind. He only visited glee club the one time, and from what he saw it had the potential to be... interesting. But that would have to wait for the next year -- everything would, really. How he did on his exams determined if he could potentially skip a grade level, what classes he would be taking the next year, what colleges he should apply to, and basically every grade counted.

His aunt and uncle were really understanding and helpful. Jason spent an hour going through Blaine’s geometry notes, which made him whistle impressively, on the night before that exam, and that turned into an intense discussion with Mike about his notes and his future. That felt to Blaine like a really good time to go to bed.

The thing about lying in bed alone in the dark was that he started thinking -- about how much it really mattered if he got good grades. Sure, his family would care, but only that side and that was about it. There wasn’t anyone clearly invested in his future success. The only person who would be proud of Blaine was Blaine.

It didn’t feel like there had been a weekend in the middle of the two weeks, as Mike and Blaine had sat at home doing nothing more than study.

Exam week passed in a blur, days of rushing through breakfast while skimming over notes followed by hours sat behind a desk, the quiet of the classrooms only interrupted by the scratching of pencil across paper as everyone worked on their tests. Mike had mentioned something about a party at Rachel’s Friday night; the group from glee was going to get pizza and maybe some booze, if Puck could swing it. Blaine wasn't really interested. 

On Friday morning, the last day of school, Blaine was finally starting to relax. The end was in sight.

“Tina said that Kurt’s been asking questions about you.” Mike cut into his thoughts. Okay, maybe Blaine was a little interested in that party on Friday night.

He focused on the paper in front of him. It wouldn’t be worth all of the effort he’d made with studying if he got distracted at the last minute. “She said he was asking what team you play for.” Focus, Blaine.

“She said that he squealed.”

He was officially distracted. “What. Why?” Why would anyone squeal?

Mike tried to look nonchalant. “Oh, now you’re interested.” Blaine rolled his eyes. “Because being gay in Lima is a tall order and, apparently, you’re hot.”

Blaine thought he was a lot of things but ‘hot’ had never been amongst them. Skinny, short, smart, and he could sing. But hot?  
“I would like to know how much she paid you to make you repeat that to me,” he said, and Mike just shrugged, a smile on his face.

“Come on, let’s get to school, finish these damn exams, and bring on summer.”

\---

The day passed in a haze of exams and coffee, just like the other had that week, and Blaine wasn’t sure how he got to standing in front of the mirror getting dressed for a party with a bunch of people he hardly knew, but there he was... And then he was getting into Mike’s car with him, and not long later they were both standing on Rachel’s doorstep.  
Blaine and Mike were ushered in by a very enthusiastic Rachel, who was swinging bits of paper in their faces and commenting on how much alcohol Puck had managed to get his hands on for that night. Everyone was, apparently, limited to two drinks each. Mike scoffed off the tokens with a wave of his hand and accepted a shot from Santana, who was out of her usual cheerleading uniform for the first time and standing over near the drinks table. She was wearing a dress -- or at least a quarter of one.  
Blaine looked around for the best place to stand quietly and not get in the way of the group, which was bickering like a large family.

A few hours later and more drinks than Blaine was willing to admit, he was standing by the wall taking in the scene around him with a smile, distracted time moving in that odd sort of slow-motion that can only pick up one image at a time to take in kind of way. He observed. He did that well, observing - it was his favourite.

“There’s plenty of space, to sleep in the den, we moved the couch.” Rachel said, half passed out on Puck’s shoulder.

He put a hand on her waist to guide her over to the couches by the wall. “Lay down before you hurt yourself.”

“Not gonna hurt myself. Where’s Finn?” Blaine heard her murmur from across the room.

Puck laughed. “I think he snuck out with Sam and Santana to smoke cigarettes and pretend they know how to be badass.”

“What? No. He can’t do that it’s bad for him. Take me to him Noah, now, before I vomit on your ugly shoes.”  
“And if I don’t...?”

The exchange was blocked out by Brittany, who was dancing to the music and trying to claw her way up on top of the poker table that Mike, Tina and Artie were still trying to play cards on.

“Brittany get down! You’re messing up the cards and I’m winning.” Artie tried to sound mad, but his face was all kinds of awe over the way she could move her body.  
“Nope, you can’t make me and I can dance all night!”

Mike cut in with a smooth kiss to Tina’s cheek. “Yield Abram’s! Tina and I voted and you lost.”

Blaine glanced to the other side of the room where Mercedes, Kurt, and a blonde girl whose name Blaine couldn’t remember for the life of him, were whispering and giggling behind their hands.

The room was a giant wreckage of cups and dropped food, people milling off in their groups, and then there was Blaine. Still on the outskirts. Still so very cautious.

“Blaine?” Tina beckoned him to the empty space in the middle of the room, waving her arms. “Dance with me?”

He looked over at Mike, or rather where Mike had been sitting a few moments ago, but his cousin was standing on a chair trying to get Brittany down. Blaine shrugged and made his way over, awkwardly bopping along with the music.

It was easy to get distracted with music, “Push Up” pounding out of the speakers and people occasionally looking over at them. One pair of eyes, in particular, looking over more than once.

The blonde girl from the group in the corner, or where Kurt was sitting, depending on what way he looked at it, joined Tina and Blaine about half way through the song. Kurt and Mercedes were doubled over laughing at something and then he heard her say something. “Quinn.”

Blaine looked at the girl, trying to figure out what she meant. “My name is Quinn.” Did she have mind reading abilities he wasn’t aware of? Tina wandered off, presumably to find Mike and convince him to dance, too.

“Nice to meet you properly, sort of.” She giggled, closing the distance between them and putting an arm around Blaine’s shoulders.

“Thought I should get that out of the way so this wouldn’t be awkward.”

“Why would it be--” Oh.

Dancing in a way that could only be construed as grinding against his thighs, she looked to be in a world of her own, eyes closed and hips moving perfectly in time with the beat.

“Quinn! You can’t do that, he’s GAY.” Rachel’s head was raised about an inch or so off the arm rest she had seemingly passed out on a few minutes -- or was it hours? Blaine was suddenly not sure how much time had passed-- earlier.

“Rachel, you’re killing my buzz! I know he’s gay but he’s also dancing, unlike any of the other guys!” Quinn yelled back over the music.

Rachel sputtered, “I’m sure there’s some sort of rule against girls grinding on gay guys, Quinn.”

Quinn had stopped dancing and was facing Rachel by that point, who looked like she was ready to pass out again. “So you’re saying if this was, say, Finn dancing with Blaine it would be okay, but I’m not allowed to? We dance with Kurt all the time!”

“But Kurt is Kurt and we’ve known him for years -- he’s one of us.”

“Way to exclude the new guy Rachel, jeez.” Quinn promptly turned around, throwing one last jibe over her shoulder. “Go back to sleep.”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Rachel tried to defend.

“Rachel, shut up before the hole is so deep even you can’t talk yourself out of it.” Puck, life saver extraordinaire, chose that moment to walk through the door from wherever he had been.

Blaine was sort of stuck, his hands held up in front of him like he was a little afraid to move, until Puck shoved his shoulder. “Come on bro, you look like you need a drink.” Quinn waved as he left, and she went to sit on the floor near Kurt and Mercedes.

“Yeah...” He followed Puck through the door and to the kitchen, where Finn, Santana, and Sam had taken refuge from the chaos, all looking a little worse for wear.

Santana piped up first. “You brought back a stray?”

“Don’t be mean, San; they were eating him alive in there. You want a drink, Blaine? Water, Coke, OJ?” it was all said in the same breath, while Puck was rattling around in the refrigerator.

“Water, please?” Blaine said cautiously.

Finn was staring at something on the wall and Sam seemed fascinated by the bowl of chips in front of him, but Santana was eyeing Blaine while he took sips of his water, and he hoped the room would stop spinning quite so fast.  
“Have you had a chance to scope Hummel yet?” Several things happened at the same time -- Sam choked on his chip, Puck slammed the door to the fridge, and Finn knocked his drink off of the table with a loud “WHAT?”

“Oh calm your tits, boys; I just said what we were all thinking.” She took a leisurely sip from the glass in front of her and looked at Blaine.

“San, I was not thinking about him picking up Kurt -- what the fuck?” Finn’s face was contorted in a twisted sort of disapproving scowl that he must have gotten from Rachel, and Puck was just rolling his eyes.

Puck intervened again, and honestly, Blaine thought the man deserved a puppy. “Come on Blaine, let’s leave the wolves be.”

Blaine dutifully followed Puck out again and that time was taken to a small table set out in the back yard. It was so much quieter out there, no loud music or people yelling things at each other. It was almost peaceful.

“You’re pretty fucked up, aren’t you? Who was mixing your drinks?” Puck pulled out a cigarette and the long line of smoke that came from it once it was lit was the most distracting thing Blaine had seen all night.

Eventually, he answered. “Brittany? I think - they were really sweet.”

Puck laughed. “Well that explains it -- there should be a toxicity warning on those things.” Puck was really nice, and Blaine thought they should definitely be best friends. “More importantly, have you had a chance to scope Hummel yet?”

Nope, definitely not best friend material. “What is this, a national inquiry?”

“We’re just looking out for our boy. The others, I promise they mean well. Maybe I should admit defeat, I’m just damn curious to know if he’s finally going to see some action. From what I’ve heard, it’s kinda slim pickings around here. And you’re … nice.”

“How do you guys even know I’m nice? For all you know I could be the toot it and boot it kind of guy.” Puck raised an eyebrow in response.

“Well excuse me, Mr. wears-bow-ties-and-requests-exams. You just don’t strike me as a badass.”

Damn. Blaine put his face in his hands. The night air wasn’t nearly cool enough to sober him up as much as was needed for the conversation.

“Look, go inside - get some sleep. We can talk about this when you’re less messy and back to normal.”

Normal Blaine would never use the term ‘toot it and boot it.’ Normal Blaine would not be having this conversation.

“No, I’ll answer.” He took a long breath in, letting it rest in his lungs for longer than was strictly necessary. “It would be nice if I could just have a conversation with the guy before all the grilling fucking started.”

Puck looked surprised. “What, you haven’t...?”

“Not a word.”

“Shit. Why not?”

Blaine sighed again. “What do I say, exactly? Oh hi, I think you’re hot and we’re both gay so let’s talk about our futures over coffee and biscotti?”

“Yeah pretty much.”  
“What?”

Puck stood up, shrugging and stamping the butt of his cigarette into the ground. “Something’s better than nothing, I guess? Come on, we’re going to get you some conversation, choir boy!”

The party seemed to have degraded further since however long it had been after Blaine left the room. There were people lying all over the place, an almost conversation being kept afloat by Brittany’s babbling at Santana.

Rachel had started snoring softly and there was drool on her pillow. Finn had managed to pick a spot on the floor with a cushion in front of her and was staring at the back of his hand.

Kurt and Mercedes had... disappeared? At least, they were not sitting where they had been before.

“Hey San, where did the others go?” Puck wandered over to the girls nonchalantly.

Brittany replied for her, in the same upbeat tone she’d been using for most of the night. “A bunch went into the den to watch a movie!”

Puck didn’t bother replying back and just motioned at Blaine with a jerk of his head to follow and they went to the den. Someone had gone to a lot of effort setting up air mattresses, bedding and pillows all over the floor. Mike and Tina were sleeping on the opposite side to the TV and Mercedes, Kurt and Sam were sprawled out closer to it. Sam’s head was at a weird angle but his eyes were glued steadily to the movie playing on the big screen.

“Mind if we crash your party?” Puck asked, and for such an assumed badass he was surprisingly polite.

Mercedes looked up, nodding once before turning her attention back to the movie.

Settling himself on the couch behind the first row of mattresses, Blaine got pulled into the movie immediately. There was so much happening on the screen and no matter how many times he had seen it, it always managed to capture his attention. He wanted to talk to Kurt, really he did. But he was already dozing, sinking back into the couch and fighting to keep his eyes open.  
\---

Waking curled up on the couch cushions; the first thing that Blaine registered was how sore his back was. He must have slept like that all night. Moving to stretch out, he noticed a deep throbbing in the back of his skull and how his mouth felt like he’d eaten cotton balls.

Blinking his eyes open against the urge to just turn over and go back to sleep, he realized that no one else in the room had moved. But there was no way he could go back to sleep without rehydrating. Trying not to step on anyone, he made his way to the kitchen and drank two full glasses of water. People were still asleep downstairs as well, and a glance at the tiny digital clock on the oven told him it was 5.57am.

Oh Jesus, really?  
He shuffled quietly back into the den, and there was no chance he was going back to the couch. There was a space between Kurt and Mercedes, but there was no way he would go back to sleep there and not to mention, that would be awkward. Instead, he took the place next to Puck and tried not to moan when the muscles in his back stretched out.

Falling back asleep was easy, and when Blaine woke for the second time that morning it was to people chatting loudly in the kitchen -- much too loudly for people who had spent most of the night drinking, to be honest.

“You’re alive!” Finn exclaimed, the first to see him wandering into the kitchen. Hopefully there was coffee. There had to be coffee.

Thankfully. Rachel had gotten the coffee pot started earlier and even lukewarm, bitter coffee was better than none. Numbers had dwindled after he’d gone back to sleep, if the group in the kitchen was all that was left. Mike and Tina were sitting over on the couch, with Mike looking a little worse for wear but Tina was surprisingly alert, talking animatedly to Quinn on her other side about the camp where she was working over the summer.

Blaine heard snippets over Sam and Finn’s loud discussion of what was considered ‘too early’ for pizza. “Kurt and I leave on Sunday, a day before the kids get there--” ‘Puck joined in on the pizza discussion, adding to the din.  
“It’s going to be great; I had all but talked Mike into coming with me again this year when... you know?”

You know -- what? Tina’s glance in his direction could have been for any number of reasons, couldn’t it? He was just being super paranoid, right? Because the last thing he had ever wanted to be was an inconvenience on Mike’s life.

“Good morning.” The smell of shower gel and hair product drifted past Blaine from the doorway. No one should look that good after a party, it truly was unfair, but there Kurt stood by the doorway in fresh jeans, sweater and scarf, looking every bit the put-together runway model at 8am. Meanwhile, Blaine had slept in his clothes from the night before he didn’t even want to think about the matted curls he was no doubt sporting from falling asleep on the couch.

“You all packed, Kurt? We’re out of here tomorrow!” Tina called from across the room.

Kurt smiled. “I’ve been packed for a week, and it takes time to plan that many outfits in advance!”

Finn snickered from the counter. “How many suitcases this year, Kurt? Will they at least fit in your car?”

“For your information, Finn, they would fit in my car no matter what. Part of the fun of owning a Navigator, don’t you think?” Finn replied with a long suffering sigh, his car was crap and everyone knew it – even Blaine. “To answer your question though, it’s only two. There really are only so many things I can risk getting wet, dirty, and ruined in one summer.”

Mike stood up, offering Tina a hand off the couch and walked to stand next to Blaine, by the door. “We should head off; maybe pick up some food on the way home? We’re giving Tina a ride home, too.” Blaine nodded. A shower and food at home sounded like heaven. Admittedly, he did feel a slight tug of wasted opportunity. Puck had promised to get him a chance to talk to Kurt, and that chance was pretty much gone for the summer.

They didn’t linger, collecting their stuff and saying a chorus of thank you and goodbyes to the group left behind at the house. Tina only lived two blocks away, but Mike spent so long saying goodbye that Blaine got bored and pulled out his phone to check Facebook.

Slowly, the New Directions had been adding him as a friend. It wasn’t like he used it much - more as a place he could chat with his friends from Dalton and stay up-to-date on the newest schemes from the Warblers. He wondered how long it would take before he was kicked out of the private Warbler group they had going on there. It wasn’t like they ever used it for official business -- that was just used as a convenient excuse if any of them got caught on Facebook in class. Phones were bad enough, but Facebook could have someone up in the headmaster’s office in ten seconds flat. The no bullying policy was enforced in any way the school could manage, in that case by removing temptation.

Blaine flicked through his timeline with practiced ease, accepting the request from ‘Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman’ that must have been sent the night prior, and reading a message from Finn describing what he would do if Blaine kept snoring that loudly from the den. Fantastic, that must have been super attractive.

Mike picked that moment to run back down the porch steps, throwing a blown kiss over his shoulder at Tina and shouting that he would see her again soon, and that they had email, Facebook, and texting until then. It was a mix between cute and disgusting, but Blaine wouldn’t begrudge his cousin the happiness.

He thought that right up until Mike got back in the car and his whole expression fell, body language speaking volumes about how he felt about being away from her for so long.

“Have you thought about going with her?” Blaine suggested, stuffing his phone back in his pocket.

Mike shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road. “I was going too but... I didn’t want it to be uncomfortable for you.”

Mike was just that kind of guy -- he thought ahead, considered other people, and was always there to lend a hand in a crisis. That pretty much meant that Blaine had screwed up his entire summer plan by getting kicked out. “You could still go you know. You don’t have to babysit me all summer.”

“Blaine I’m not-- it’s not a chore. I love hanging out with you. I just figured that you would be bored shitless at home with my mom and dad and that maybe it would be better all-round if I skipped out on camp this year. Besides, I called Steve and he was fine with it. I’m pretty sure he can find someone to replace me easily enough.” Blaine looked at him inquisitively. His cousin was a well-known martyr and this was no exception.

“Well maybe you should have just... suggested I go with you?” That surprised Mike and hell, it surprised Blaine, who had not even considered the idea until the moment it came out his mouth. Did he even want to do that? Camping out in dodgy little cabins for weeks on end with kids?

Mikes face lit up like a Christmas tree, a smile so rare that Blaine was pretty sure he’d only seen it two or three times since he’d moved in. “I just didn’t want to put you further out of your comfort zone, I mean, it can’t be easy staying with us after what happened with your parents and you just moved in then there was exams and shit, they leave tomorrow. We might not even be ready on time and we’d have to talk to mom and dad.It would be a hell of a plan to pull off in twenty-four hours.”

He was so excited. There was no backing out for Blaine then, and it was the least he could do after changing Mike’s entire life. He could deal with a few weeks of it. Besides, it would be something to do that wasn’t thinking about the next year of school and just how he was going to cope with it.

“Just wait until I tell Tina! Oh, and I need to call Steve!” Mike was bouncing a little in his seat. “Or maybe I just shouldn’t tell her! We can just show up at camp tomorrow like it was something we had planned! Mom and Dad should be fine, they were going to let me go anyway and this would get both of us out of their hair, it’s a perfect plan.”

It wasn’t until Mike mentioned Tina that Blaine remembered that she wasn’t the only one who was going to be there at the camp  
Kurt.  
Kurt was going to be there all summer. They were going to be able to have an actual conversation. This could be exactly the opportunity to get to know him. He wasn’t naïve -- just because Kurt was openly gay at school didn’t mean he was looking for a boyfriend or even that Blaine was. But it would be nice to have a kindred spirit, a friend- who understood.

When they got home, Blaine made a bee-line for the shower, promising Mike they could discuss it with his parents when he got out. That gave Mike enough time to call Steve to check if there was space for them at all.

There was nothing better than a long, hot shower after a night out, and it was hard to believe he’d waited that long to have one. Finally, clean and a hell of a lot better presented, twenty minutes later, Blaine was in the kitchen listening to Mike’s excited rendition of his chat with Steve.

“They have space! They did get another person in for dance but he said I could work with her and that would be easier anyway because they needed another person to cover the amount of kids signed up this break. He said there was a spot for you, but because you haven’t been a leader there before you couldn’t just be handed a bunch of kids so he’s making you the pool supervisor and assigning you to a group of younger kids with someone else.” Apparently Mike wasn’t big on taking time to breathe while speaking anymore.

“Mike, calm down,” Blaine interrupted. “How are you so excited about this and yet were so happy to give it up because I moved in?”

“Dude, I told you, I didn’t want to throw all this on you before our exams. Can we go talk to Mom now? Or maybe we should just cut to the chase and ask Dad, he’s the one more likely to say no.”

It turned out neither of Mike’s parents had a problem with both the boys holding down a decent job for most of the summer. It didn’t pay well, which was a surprise to Blaine because he hadn’t thought they would be getting paid at all. He’d never really had to look at summer work -- most of the time he just stayed at home or went out with his Warbler friends. That sounded fickle even in his own mind.

They spent the afternoon packing after Mike printed out two copies of the list of things to bring, which Steve had sent to his email. Blaine almost had a heart attack after learning that he didn’t own anything even half decent enough to swim in, and had to race to the mall to get a few things. That took up another hour and a half. Both were mostly finished just after dinner time, packing the luggage carefully into Mike’s station wagon for an early set off the next morning.

According to Mike, the trip took about three hours and he wanted to miss traffic, and driving in the early morning was just the best feeling. All in all they were leaving at dawn with a quick trip to the gas station for food and fuel.

\---

When Blaine’s alarm went off at 4.30am, their plan was possibly the stupidest thing he’d ever heard, but Mike was serious about getting up with enough time to shower and actually wake up before they hit the road. Excited he might have been, but road safety was a serious issue. So showered, caffeinated, and with the early morning chill still on the air, they left.

They stopped long enough for gas and to get more coffee, because it was still disgracefully early, and holding the cup made Blaine feel like he was awake enough to survive it. It had taken him hours to get to sleep the night before, thinking about all the different ways he could be spending his summer and even if this was the right thing for him to be doing. What if people had a problem with him being around their kids? What if he made some stupid mistake? What if no one liked him?

He’d told himself off after that last thought, but it didn’t stop that nagging feeling from coming back again once they were on the road. There was no turning back.

Mike was in good spirits, perked up with the idea that he would actually get to spend most of the summer within walking distance of his girlfriend and in a familiar place, doing what he loved. Blaine could totally respect that.

But when they pulled into a long dirt driveway, after driving for hours and way too many games of I-spy, that feeling of dread was a heavy lump in Blaine’s stomach. There were a few other cars parked around, including Kurt’s Navigator, where Mike pulled up…

“Mike, what do we do? When we get there, I mean? Does everyone just automatically know where they’re sleeping and stuff, or is that assigned?”

There were a few other cars parked around where Mike pulled up, but no people to be seen. “Dude, calm down. We’re fine. They’re probably all in the mess hall organizing the troops.”

Troops? What was it, boot camp?

Fidgeting with the hem of his sweater, Blaine followed Mike toward a large building off to the left of the car and came to a stop in front of an old looking orange door. “Right, when we go inside Steve will want to meet you. He’s very careful with the rooming arrangements for us leaders so best be upfront about your preferences.”

“Preferences?”

“You will probably be rooming with a girl.”

“Right.”

He wasn't even going to pretend that that didn’t sting a little bit. Understandably, the leaders being aged between 15 and 25 it was best to partner them up based on their ages and preferences, but it also felt a little like they weren’t completely trusted to make informed decisions. There always seemed to be a fine line between tolerance and ignorance. But luckily, the fact that the camp manager had even thought of that was a step in the right direction.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Mike pushed through the door and they walked into a room large enough to hold two basketball courts and ten tables with ten chairs around each. The middle table had a strange assortment of teenagers and a couple of adults. The one sitting at the head of that table, writing notes rapidly in an old leather bound notebook, had to be Steve.

“MIKE!” Tina yelled, running across the room to say hello. “I didn’t think you were coming, why didn’t you tell me?! Oh and you brought Blaine, this is going to be a seriously awesome summer. Come on, let’s get back to Kurt and the gang.” Mike shrugged back at Blaine while Tina dragged him off by an arm to the table.

“Blaine, nice to meet you. I’m Steve, head counsellor here.” Steve stood up, and that made him kind of intimidating. He was a lot taller standing up and was holding out a beefy hand for Blaine to shake. Blaine took it, trying not to let his nerves show through while his hand was squeezed tightly.

“So you’re going to be working with Lauren, by the looks of it,” Steve said.

Blaine was taken aback. Was he really that easy to read? Surely that was a bit presumptuous. It must have shown on his face, because Steve was quick to continue. “Lauren’s a boxing champion. She’ll be the brawn in your team.” Oh right, team of kids they were looking after.

“I know all you kids just want to know the rooming arrangements, but I’m not posting those until dinner. This year I have...” he produced a stack of papers from the back of his notebook, holding them up proudly. “Questionnaires. They have a few questions on there regarding to things that matter when you’re looking after kids and when you’re sharing rooms out between older pairs. I’m going to ask that you be honest.”

Steve sat down again at the head of the table, passing half the stack to each of the people sitting either side of him. “I’m not going to announce your answers when I get them back. Rightfully, I can’t even ask you to fill it out, but I run this camp and we’re all here for a while. I expect tolerance and respect in the staff just as much as I expect it from the kids.” Blaine’s eyes skimmed down the piece of paper in his hand.

“Hi.” Oh that was... Kurt smiled at him from the seat next to Blaine. “May I please have a pen?”

“Wha-pardon?” Blaine hastily corrected.

“The pens. In front of you? May I have one please?” Kurt was looking at hium patiently with a hand stretched out in front of him. Sure enough there was a box of pens on the table in front of him, and Blaine looked like a class A idiot.

“Sure. Yes.” Blaine put one of the pens in Kurt’s hand and the smile it produced was reason enough for him having gotten out of bed so early that morning’. It was just a shame he was an idiot who couldn’t form sentences.

“You’re Blaine, right? We go to school together.” It was a statement rather than a question, and it caused a hot flush to rise all over Blaine’s face. “I meant to say hello at the party, but you ran off with Puck and I didn’t want to intrude.”

“Hello, yes. You’re Kurt. We had glee together; it’s nice to finally meet you. You’re probably lucky we didn’t get a chance to talk at Rachel’s… to say I wasn't at my best would be an understatement.” Kurt nodded knowingly looking back down at his own sheet of paper and slowly writing the answers in a neat looping scrawl.

Blaine got to work quickly, trying to at least catch up to the rest of the group and not be completely distracted by the thought of spending weeks making awkward small talk with an attractive boy who he was going to be spending another year in school with.

Name: Blaine Anderson  
Sex: Male  
Age: 16  
Orientation:   
Likes: football, outdoors, vegetables  
Dislikes: cold, blood, spiders  
Allergies: none known of.  
Group age preference: 6-7, 8-9, 9-10, 10-13 years - boys / girls?  
“You missed one,” Kurt noted, not even pretending to be looking at his own sheet.

“Yeah, I didn’t quite know what to...” Blaine answered, trailing off at the end. Kurt smiled, but one that was different than before. It was a long suffering I-know-how-you-feel smile that didn’t go all the way to his eyes.

“Honest and to the point. It’s the only way.” He put his paper on the table before wandering off to talk to one of the girls in the group. Blaine couldn’t help his eyes being drawn straight to the neatly penned likes boys on Kurt’s sheet and grinning at it.

Tina chose that moment to dig a finger into his side and startle him out of his reverie. “So, Blaine. You’ve missed a question.” He sighed, quickly scribbling in ‘gay’ and folding up the sheet of paper.

“Well spotted, Tina.”

“Ooh, did someone get caught cheating on their test? Eyes on your own paper, Anderson.” She smirked. “Loosen up, I’m just teasing you! This is summer, Blaine. We’re here to have fun.” Her emphasis on words might have been funny if Blaine hadn’t been too busy being nervous and scared.

“Yes. Thank you for pointing that out. When does the fun start?” Tina laughed, pulling him up by the hand and tapping him on the head. “What was that?”

“You’re it.”

“What?”

“You’re. It.” Then she bolted.

Blaine looked around, and a brown haired girl sitting at the seats near Steve caught his attention, meeting his gaze with a grin, “You better go catch her then, or no one else will go near you for the rest of the evening.”

She had to be joking.

Tina ducked her head back in the door long enough to see that he was still standing right where she had left him. “Fun isn’t going to start itself Blaine, you’re it. This is where you run after me and try to tag me back.”

“But--”

Oh forget it. He ran out the door and spotted Tina in the parking lot, leaning up against Kurt’s Navigator and dusting dirt off of her nails. “Anytime today, Anderson?” She took off again, headed for the wide, empty field surrounded by cabins.

Fifteen minutes later, he was no closer to catching her. Tina had a knack for knowing exactly when to run, never giving him the chance to get closer than a few meters. It came down to an unlucky trip on Tina’s part for Blaine to race up and actually catch her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, all laughter stopping the moment he saw her go down. Blaine put a hand on her shoulder, looking down at the ankle she was holding gingerly.

“Yeah I’m f--”

“Blaine? Is there something you haven’t told us?” Blaine whipped around at the sound of a familiar voice. Nick, who was standing next to Jeff, both holding over stuffed duffel bags.

He didn’t know what to think. How? What?

“So, Nick’s been on the list to come down here for a few months,” Jeff explained. “But there was a week at school when my parents went a little nuts, so I wanted a reason to get away for the summer. So I arranged to come here as well.”

There was a whistle from the entry to the main hall and Steve beckoned them over. “That’s a whole lot of coincidence right there.” Tina stated, letting Blaine help her up and putting a bit of pressure on the ankle that had twisted. “It’s okay, I think. I can walk on it.”

They made their way back to the chairs in the hall for sleeping arrangements. A few more people had trickled in during the game outside. It turned out they were sleeping in groups of four counsellors to a cabin (two on each side of the large dorm houses with a divide in the middle). There were two-person rooms at the ends of each of the cabins and the cabins themselves held twenty-six campers. Then Steve said something about dinner and a campfire, and the afternoon had gone so fast that Blaine was surprised to find himself yawning.

The same girl with brown hair from before, who had told him to chase Tina walked up to where he’d been sitting for the planning. “Hey there, new boy. Lauren, nice to meet you. We should go get our stuff set up before it gets too dark. Do you need any help getting your things out of the car?”

Blaine was taken aback. Of course she was nice to offer, but he was perfectly capable. “Hi Lauren. I’m Blaine, and it’s okay, I’ve got it. But we can walk together if you like? I still don’t know which of the cabins is ours.”

“Because we have the younger girls, we have the one closest to the bathroom. It’s pretty convenient.” The older girls will be in there the longest, the older boys will spend more time trying to avoid the showers, and the younger boys are going to pee all over the seats.”

“Communal bathrooms?”

Lauren nodded. “Yes. So grab your stuff, let’s go.” They practically ran to Mike’s car, where he was already pulling out his bag and pillow.

“You alright Blaine?” Blaine replied with a hasty ‘yep’ and they were out of there. Theirs was a long cabin, which was closest to the bathroom and the side of the dorm, leaving them with only a ten meter walk. He couldn’t even imagine the fifty meters from the dorm furthest away from the bathroom being fun on the cold nights out in the country. “Don’t feel too bad, more often than not the trees will get watered.”

Blaine shuddered at the implication. Surely they were past...that. They unpacked sheets, sleeping gear, and clothes for the upcoming weeks. “So tonight Steve’s going to put on a grill, tell a story or two about bad things happening out in the woods, and lay down the law about counsellor interaction. We’re lucky; he’s done a better job at separating the couples up this year than he did last time. There were people sneaking out all over the place last year! Not to mention the people sneaking in.”

Lauren offered her explanation while tucking bags of candy into zip lock bags – because raccoons in the cabin would be bad – and putting them in the top drawer next to her bed

“We should get going--” Blaine motioned out in the general direction of the campfire.

Lauren put the last bag away, catching his eye while she did. “Bribery. Never hurts to have this stuff on hand after hours. I'm ready now.”

Exactly as Lauren had predicted, Steve laid down the law on counsellor socialization and explained when the activities roster would go up. The kids were due to start arriving at 10 am the next morning, so the group was encouraged to get an early night and eat a hearty breakfast.

The real fun would begin the next day.

\---

Sleeping with another person in the room was going to be interesting, but getting changed into pyjamas in the communal bathrooms was a challenge in itself. Not to mention the tiled floor was damn cold and almost everyone was relegated to change there because of the pairing system.

Blaine didn’t know if there was any difference between the boys and girls bathroom but there were nine stalls in the boys, six showers and three toilets. There was also a line of open showers, presumably for after swimming in the river or the pool. He was rushing to change in one of the stalls and rinse the gel out of his hair under the shower, not wanting to spend too long in there.

There was some chatter between Jeff and Steve, who were standing at the sinks brushing their teeth. Judging by the shadows, someone was changing in the stall over.

“Crap.” Something smashed loudly on the floor, and little shards of glass appeared under the division, landing near Blaine’s foot.

Steve must have still been standing over near the mirror, because he was the one who asked, “Everything okay, Kurt?”

Kurt sighed loud enough for it to echo off the walls. “Can someone please pass me the broom from the corner? I accidentally dropped my mirror.”

“That’ll be seven years bad luck kid. Hope you’re decent.” There was a knock and the jiggle of the door being opened. “Be careful where you step, you don’t have shoes on. Do you have any sandals in there to cover your feet?”

“Who’s in the next stall?” Kurt asked.

Blaine was sitting down on the small chair on the other side of the shower curtain keeping his feet off the floor. “That would be me.”

“Blaine? Sorry about this, do you have shoes?”

Blaine’s head fell heavily on the wall behind him. “Nope, just socks,” he answered. 

It was easy enough to avoid the few shards of glass sporadically on the floor, but he was halfway through getting dressed, so the next few moments were spent trying to wiggle into his pants while sitting/crouching on the small bench seat. Finally, he carefully placed the pad of his foot on the floor and managed to wrangle the door open without stepping on any glass.

Mike was perched up on the sinks, feet off the floor, watching Steve and Kurt alternate with the broom and getting the worst of the mess off the floor. “Why did you even need a mirror in there, Kurt? There’s perfectly good ones out here,” Mike asked with an inquisitive look.

“Because there’s not enough light in the dorms now that Tina’s gone to bed and my routine takes about thirty minutes and...” he trailed off, looking at the faces of Steve, Mike, and Blaine around him. “I’ve been teased about it before, so last summer I took to just - doing it in here with a hand mirror.” A blush had risen in his cheeks, but Kurt’s stance was more defensive than nervous.

Steve looked dubious, but Mike hopped down from the counter and said his goodnights at that. Blaine didn’t know what to do, so after his stall had had a broom run through it, he collected his belongings and headed back to his and Lauren’s room.

They talked for a few minutes, a quiet conversation about sleeping preferences. She liked it completely dark and slept with headphones in. Blaine liked it quiet and didn’t care if the light was on or not. The conversation finished up with a final ‘goodnight’ from Lauren while she put her earbuds in.

Blaine shifted on his bed; the mattress was thin but not entirely uncomfortable and he was thankful for his own bedding. Six weeks of sleeping on that bed and he would probably be ready for a trip to the chiropractor.

It was the early hours of the morning when he finally dozed off.

\---

Breakfast the next morning saw the arrival of a charming woman by the name of Margaret, who was to be the camp’s Administrator, Chef, First Aid Officer, and she was also Steve’s wife. Blaine was walking past the parking lot on his way to the kitchen when he saw her unpacking box upon box from the back of an SUV and offered to help.

She’d loaded a box in his hands and told him to send everyone else out too, or they wouldn’t be getting breakfast. Blaine liked her already. Placing the box down in the huge kitchen attached to the main hall, he saw Steve sitting down with a steaming mug of coffee and let him know that Margaret said there was work to be done. Steve’s voice echoed around the camp. “Round it up kids, time to get to work!”

Less than twenty minutes later, almost everyone had made an appearance and helped lug everything inside. Apparently it was just the first week’s supplies, and there would be new brought weekly.

The campers were due to arrive between twelve and two in the afternoon but apparently, due to nervous parents and excitable kids, the first people generally showed around ten. So straight after breakfast the counsellors got to work, sweeping out the dorms, stocking the bathrooms and, in Blaine’s case, cleaning out the pool. It was hot out already, so the splash of water from the pool was delightful side effect rather than a hindrance.

Blaine managed to get the pool done just before lunch, and there already hundreds of people milling around. It could easily have been less, but it looked as though every camper had brought their entire family and a trunk full of luggage to boot. Steve was trying to mass them on the grass recreation area in between the dorms, sign each camper in, check them off on the dorm rosters, and then move on to the next.

Counsellors milled around talking to parents and helping kids find their dorms to settle in. Margaret had organized sandwiches in the hall for the kids whose parents had already left and there were more people to be found in there. Blaine didn't know where to start, so he went back to his and Lauren's dorm to see how many of the beds had been allocated to campers and to check that things were going smoothly.

"Can I help you, young man?" The question was asked by an older man, dressed in an impeccably tailored suit and holding the hand of a young girl near one of the bunks.

"No thank you, I'm one of the counsellors here." Blaine held out a hand in greeting, only to have the guy look down his nose and raise an eyebrow.

"You're here in the young girls’ dorm? Surely there should be female counsellors on hand to deal with the children. I should talk to Steve; clearly there has been a misunderstanding."

Blaine cocked his head to the side. Clearly the man was an idiot and explaining that he was gay was not going to help the situation. "You're more than welcome to speak to Steve about it sir, but the camp rules are very specific about how us leaders interact with the children and you should note that there are also female counsellors in the boys’ dorm. In fact, most pairs are made of both. You should know that I have other duties to attend to while the kids are ch-indisposed.”  
Blaine paused before continuing, “I think your concern for your daughter is commendable.”

If only he hadn't stuttered over the word changing the speech may have been delivered a bit more smoothly, but the man looked genuinely appeased, choosing instead to huff slightly and direct his daughter to put her belongings away in the drawers next to her bunk. Blaine nodded once and left the dorm for somewhere he hoped would be a bit friendlier. Surely the camp had had these problems before. Didn't it state in the information packs or somewhere that the counsellors were placed with the kids via suitability? His doubting lasted all the way to the main hall, where his name was called just as soon as he stepped over the threshold. "Blaine, in the kitchen please!" Margaret called from the doorway. "I need another pair of hands to help out with dinner and you don't look busy!"

He hastily made his way over to the kitchen to find Margaret working on her own. "Everyone is introducing themselves and settling the kids. There's usually a roster on hand for this stuff and the campers will help too, but the first day is a bloodbath. So can you get those pots over there filled with water and on the stove, then start on the carrots?" She didn't wait for a reply, bustling off to her own preparation duties.

Blaine chanced a look at his watch. Three in the afternoon already? Impossible. Time was flying and he knew he had to be back at the dorm before four for bed checks -- these first ones were carried out to make sure everyone at least had a bed and were unpacked, or soon to be. There was also a meeting at five on the lawn for rules and introductions, and by six everyone needed to be in the hall for dinner. By seven there were showers and settling everyone in and holy hell, what had he signed up for?

"Carrots don't peel and grate themselves, mister, we're all on a schedule and I'll be shang-hi-ing anyone I see standing around so we should be ready to go on time." Also, Margaret's ability to read his mind could be a pain. "This is not my first time around kiddo. We have an hour to get the bulk of this done then you're free to get ou- NICK, TINA" she interrupted the sentence half way through and a few seconds later Nick and Tina were both bustling around the kitchen as well.

They made good time on the large pots of spaghetti sauce with carrots and other vegetables hidden inside. Before he knew it, Blaine was back in the dorms rushing around with bedding and suitcases and girls everywhere. Then out on the lawn listening to Steve recite the camp rules. Then back in the kitchen serving and eating dinner. He got put on dish washing duty while the other leaders bustled the girls into the showers and got them ready for the quiet activities that night. It was already almost seven thirty when he got back to his dorm and was able to properly introduce himself to a few of the campers. There was no way he was going to remember all of their names that day, but someone had cleverly added a white board on each of the bunks that the girls were encouraged to write their names on.

Around nine, most had gone to bed, but Lauren was still quietly reading a story in the middle of the room when Blaine tip toed out for a shower of his own. He waved groggily at Mike who was rushing out of the room with a towel and his own kit.

"Good first day?" Mike asked on the way past, winking and slapping Blaine's raised hand in a high five.

"It's mental. What am I doing here?" Mike laughed, continuing on his way back to what Blaine presumed was his own room.

"You'll get used to it; every first day is like that. Things will settle down tomorrow with activities." Blaine nodded and headed through the door, choosing the shower next to the wall and closing the stall. The hot water felt like heaven and the wave of tiredness bordering on nausea hit him full pelt.

He let out a loud sigh, his head resting on the cool tiled wall. Going there, taking this job was definitely looking like a bad idea. Somewhere along the line he'd forgotten that it was, in fact, a job. Blaine was not the kind of guy to go back on his word so he was there for the next six weeks, with three waves of campers and all of the other counsellors. He was in charge of looking after the pool and supervising kitchen clean up almost every night and there was only one day, the Sunday before the campers arrived, that he would get actual time off. Yes, the money was okay and it would be even better in a few weeks when he could afford to pay for his school things and maybe some new clothes, but from the beginning of summer, it looked like a really, really long few weeks.

Lost in thought and feeling relaxed for the first time that day, he didn't notice the sound of someone else coming into the bathroom. However when the hot water beating down on his neck cooled to lukewarm he couldn't help the loud profanity that slipped from his lips and echoed around the room.

"Sorry." Kurt's voice came from the other side of the wall. "The hot water is a bit sensitive when there's more than one shower going. Try turning the cool all the way off."  
Fiddling with the dial, Blaine let out a little groan when his water went back to properly hot, only to hear a squeak from the other stall. 

"Hope it's not like this for the kids," he said, turning his own hot tap down and adding a bit of cool. Warm was not ideal but it was better than cold, and he started quickly cleaning himself. "I'll get out of here in a moment and let you use all the hot water you want."

"Blaine, is that you?" There was something to be said for being naked, soapy, and wet, and having a conversation through the walls with another person who was equally naked and soapy and wet.

Blaine blushed at the thought. "Guilty. Tired too, so not for much longer." 

Kurt hummed in agreement, and Blaine heard the snap of a bottle being opened “Can't imagine you've got much energy left after a day like today. You get used to it, I promise. Last year there were eight weeks and four waves of campers, and every Monday was just like today. Steve was smart to back it down to three this year."

"So the dynamics of the camp itself changes every year too?" Blaine asked. "That can't be much fun for the organizers."

"No, no - from what I can tell it's more of a hit and miss thing. Steve had a few problems last year with counsellors playing up and the camp being a mess because of it. Maybe not a mess but it didn't feel very well planned." Kurt paused and Blaine heard another snap of a cap closing. "Last year was very different for all of us." 

That seemed like a loaded statement, but Blaine was finished anyway so he turned off the taps and towelled himself dry, trying to stay warm in the drafty room.

He was trying to find something to say in response when Kurt continued. "Tina and I did this last year to get away from Lima for a while. She knows Steve as a family friend and my Dad has had him down at the shop with his car a few times. It felt like the perfect escape."

He sounded sad and tired and Blaine still didn't know what to say. He was hurriedly getting dressed when the other shower slowed to a halt.

"You're still there, right? I'm not talking to myself here?" 

Blaine laughed, and a heard a relieved sigh from the stall where Kurt was, "Still here, just getting dressed before I freeze to death. How is it so cold in here in summer?"

He was dressed by that point, pulling on an old Dalton hoodie and putting his shower things away in his bag. Kurt laughed, and they probably sounded like a pair of overtired children to the outside of the shower block with the way the walls echoed and seemed to amplify sound. Blaine sat on the little bench outside to dry his feet and put some socks and shoes on for the short walk back. At the same time, Kurt emerged from his stall in pyjama pants and a sweater, his hair wrapped up in a towel and no one should be allowed to look that adorable. Blaine's hair, meanwhile, was still damp and steadily dripping water down his neck and onto his hoodie.

Kurt obviously had some experience with getting dressed quickly and efficiently and he wasn't wearing as many layers as he did at school. Maybe not even underwear, Blaine thought, and he immediately chastised himself for letting his mind go there.

"Anyway," Kurt said as he picked up his bag from the shower stall and slid his feet into some sandals. "I'm going to bed, or rather, to my room to do my skin routine then to sleep. This open air and activity does horrible things to my skin." With that he smiled and waved before walking out the door.

He was like a whirlwind, and Blaine was way too exhausted to deal with thinking about why Kurt had sounded so forcefully cheerful as he’d been leaving. He finished with his shoes and walked back to his dorm. Lauren was already in bed with her headphones in when he sunk down on his own bed and closed his eyes.

Less than an hour later, the night began in earnest.

\---

"Blaine? Blaine wake up, I've lost my teddy and I think someone's been sick on the floor.”

Chloe? Claire? Kate? He couldn’t remember her name, but it was irrelevant. She was right, though. It disturbed almost all of Blaine and Lauren's side of the dorm when Blaine turned on the lights. Lauren took Emily, who had been sick, to the showers to get cleaned up and changed and Blaine went to fetch a mop and bucket. They found Courtney's teddy under her bed and, with the mess cleaned up, settled the girls back to sleep. They left a bucket near Emily's bed, which fortunately was a bottom bunk or it could have been worse.

Famous last words.

They were woken up four more times after that. Once by Emily and twice by Courtney who was, apparently, a very light sleeper. Lastly by Ava who said something about being late for breakfast. Lauren dragged herself out of bed first, closing the door and directing the girls to change for breakfast. Blaine changed as well, throwing his clothes into a pile on the floor for washing as soon as they had a chance.

The dorm smelled strongly of the hospital grade disinfectant the pair had taken turns at using the night before. Luckily, Emily seemed over the worst of it, but the lack of sleep was clear on all the group’s faces as they trooped to the hall for breakfast.

Blaine made a beeline for the fresh pot of coffee that was brewed next to one of the industrial stoves in the kitchen, and didn't move from it until he was holding a steaming cup, breathing it in like that would help.

"Wow dude, you look like shit. Bad night?"

Blaine looked up blearily. "Good Morning..." Crap, what was his name? They had been introduced yesterday- he knew he should know what it was.

The boy who’d spoken was tall with red hair, and freckles all over the bridge of his nose. "It's Jack, we met yesterday. I'm in the boys’ dorm." He smiled enthusiastically and Blaine wondered how much coffee it would take for him to match his energy level.

It was going to be a long day.

\---

Their first stop was the badminton courts behind the hall and to the right – and they had a short trek up a path before they were there. The courts were possibly decades old and the first people out to them each day had to set them up. Blaine was surprised to find himself laughing along with everyone else when none of them could be bothered playing after they had finished getting the nets out and hanging them.

That was how Steve found them an hour later; sitting in a circle in the second court playing a get-to-know-you-game that Lauren suggested was always good for a first day. "You may as well take this lot back to the dorm they're as tired as you guys. Did you have a bad night?"

Blaine explained about Emily's getting sick as the group trooped back to the dorm, which smelled better thanks to the windows being left open.

Half of the girls, and Blaine knew he really needed to put more effort into learning their names, were fine to continue on to arts and crafts after lunch. The others were still lethargic and, he didn't know if it was a kid thing or a lack of sleep thing but, they were incredibly whiny. Sarah didn't want sausages, Emily was bored, Courtney was in no uncertain terms switching bunks to be further away from Emily, and Blaine was just really, really tired.

They made it through the afternoon, in any event, and Blaine left the girls with Lauren for showers and changing while he went to help in the kitchen.

Day two was almost over but there was the new challenge of the mixture of kids who were tired, kids who weren't because they had slept during the day, and kids who were overtired.

And Blaine was certain anyone who wanted to have kids should be put in that situation because it was a pretty damn good case to the contrary. But on the other hand, babies didn't start at seven years old and didn't come in batches of twenty or so.

He just really needed some sleep. Around nine o’clock, Blaine forced himself to the shower, and a quick and efficient and ten minutes later he was finally, blissfully asleep.

\---

The next day was better, as a full night’s sleep made the world a better place, and he was starting to get into a routine with the group and his own duties, working his assigned activities, helping out, and even picking up names of campers as he went.

There was conversation with Margaret during dinner preparation, which was something he'd just sort of stepped into doing. No matter which group was on kitchen duty that night, another pair of hands on deck was always appreciated. Margaret explained that counselors did get time off on the Saturday before a new group of campers came in, and every Friday she and Steve would take all of the campers to the hall to watch movies.

Blaine found himself most looking forward to a long shower and catching up with Mike and Tina. They saw each other during the day but more often than not it was a wave across the hall or field.

The first week flew by in the wink of an eye, and Blaine spent Friday afternoon playing lifeguard to his and Lauren's group, which had somehow merged with Nick and Katie's. Then there were dinner and showers before all were herded off to the hall for a movie.

“We had the same idea I see.” Kurt walked in just as Blaine was slipping his shoes off onto the small wooden bench in the bathroom.

Blaine nodded in response. The kids had been in the hall for over an hour by then, and all he could think about was a long hot shower and some time to himself.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to bother you – there’s a lot to be said for personal space when you don’t get it for a solid week.”

To be truthful, Blaine was trying to find something so say back about the fact that dealing with kids was hard and he probably wasn’t cut out for this kind of work, when Kurt slipped off his shoes and started rucking up his shirt while slipping into one of the stalls. But Blaine was stuck, looking stunned at the door that Kurt had disappeared behind.

There were marks on Kurt’s back, pale yellow and some with a hint of dark purple left in them. Like repetitive strikes of a ruler but less defined. He couldn’t imagine why Kurt had done that, shown that part of him so willingly. Blaine finally stood and chose the next stall over to shower in, decidedly not thinking about anything less than innocent.

“Kurt, those… marks on your back…?” Tact. He had it. Blaine mimed smacking his head into the wall. He couldn’t see Kurt’s reaction to the sentence, but if he could he would have seen the curses pouring silently from Kurt’s mouth. 

“What about them?” His tone sounded terse even in the tiled bathroom.

Blaine tried to cover his tracks. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine, nothing to worry about.” It was Kurt’s way of saying ‘don’t ask about them please,’ and he sounded uncomfortable.

Going back to washing himself, Blaine muttered, “I’m sorry, that question was intrusive I-I didn’t mean to ruin your shower.” And then he silently cursed at himself.

Kurt sighed loudly. “It’s fine Blaine, no worries here. It’s just really nice to have a bit of a break, you know?”

He didn’t know whether or not the question was rhetorical, but Blaine shut up and spent a few long minutes washing his hair and revelling in hot water cascading down his back before turning off the taps and towelling off. The other shower was already off and he could hear the sound of Kurt breathing in the next stall.

And that sounded creepy even in thought.

Pulling on some sweatpants and a shirt from his bag, Blaine stepped out of his stall and over to the mirrors lined up on the opposite wall, taking out his brush and a tube of hair gel from his bag.

He had every intention of going over to the campfire, where most of the counsellors had planned to hang out on their night off, so taming his wild hair was a must.

“You really don’t need to use so much product. Your poor hair.”

Blaine laughed, slicking his hair back with practiced ease and running a comb through it. “You’re one to talk. I saw you at school, remember? You could create your own personal hole in the Ozone layer with the amount of hairspray you use.”

“Low blow,” Kurt replied, pulling out a can of hairspray from his bag and looking at it, then resolutely putting it right back without using any. “Fine, I won’t use any tonight if you wash out that gel.”

He raised an eyebrow in challenge and Blaine sighed, making a show of trooping back to the shower and washing his gel out, careful not to get his t-shirt or pants wet – or to think about whether or not Kurt was watching him. “I’m going to regret this, aren’t I? You haven’t seen my hair without gel. It’s fine as hell and puffs up like you wouldn’t believe.”

Kurt smiled, shouldering his bag and slipping his shoes back on, about to walk out. “Hey, Kurt?” Don’t leave. “Do you want to um, go for a walk or something?” Kurt tipped his head to the side inquisitively, eyeing Blaine with a look that said, why should I trust you?

“Okay.”

Both dropped their bags off at their cabins and met back outside the bathroom ten minutes later. Blaine was nervous, but kind of giddy, that Kurt had at least been willing to spend their only night off that week with him.

They walked along the dirt trodden path out past the floodlights that kept the park lit up, and passed the group huddled around the campfire, who were laughing and drinking what probably wasn’t just soda from solo cups.

By the time they had reached the outskirts of the camp, Blaine’s blood felt like it was buzzing around his body like it was full of electricity. Kurt was beautiful in the moonlight. Well, technically he was always amazing to look at, but when it was just moonlight reflected on his pale skin and …

Blaine licked his lips nervously. They were alone, and he had absolutely no idea what to talk about. “So-um.” Honestly, he thought, his articulation was astounding.  
“So.” Kurt repeated. “The stars are beautiful out here...” Blaine looked up for the first time since leaving the camp. The sky was a massive black blanket covered with lots of small twinkling lights and the forest was dark and eerie around them.

“They are. Maybe we shouldn’t go too much further from camp, just in case.”

Kurt laughed, and out there in the seeming emptiness of the night the sound was loud and startling. “In case of what, Blaine? Scared a bear is going to jump out?” Thinking about it, yeah - that was pretty much it.

“Bears, walking through spiders webs, one of us falling over and breaking something and having to be carried back to camp, yes,” Blaine said seriously.

Kurt’s eyes darted around the dark surrounding them. “Yeah, you’ve got a point.”

Everything around them was suddenly very loud in comparison to the silence -- rustles through the leaves on the ground and crickets chirping. “Maybe we should um, have at least brought a flashlight or something.” Kurt looked nervous, no hint of laughter left in his voice or face.

There was definitely rustling in bushes, and Blaine couldn’t deny that while being alone with Kurt was nice, being alone with him in the woods in the dark of night was more nerve wracking and terrifying than nice.

What was he supposed to do? There was only so long Blaine could pretend that he wasn’t rattled by the sound of wind whooshing through the trees, crickets chirping, and the possibility of silent spiders hanging around in the dark.

As it was, Kurt caved first. “M-Maybe we should head back a little closer. There are plenty of places we could sit and talk where it’s less dark and wood-y.” There was a joke in that, but Blaine was way too nervous to appreciate it fully.

The pair turned around, a lot more cautious than they had been getting there, and found their way back to the path. They both breathed a little easier when they saw a glimpse of light through the trees up ahead.

Neither of them heard the footsteps behind them, and neither one thought about how certain people would react to them not hanging out with the group for the evening.

Hours later, Blaine crawled into bed, unable to disguise the dopey grin on his face. Even the dirt from his shoes, which had left marks on the floor in his room, couldn’t stop that slight tingly feeling in every part of his body. Kurt was wonderful, single, and thoroughly beautiful. They had found a little patch of grass behind the badminton courts and sat talking for hours.

Kurt liked musical theatre, and fashion, and boys, and it was just really, really nice for Blaine to have someone to talk to that he had so much in common with. Everything was kind of perfect, really.

“And where have you been?” Lauren asked when she walked in.

She gave a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows and winked. Blaine rolled his eyes. “Out, walking with Kurt. We were talking.”

“Talking. MmmmHmm, sure. That’s what they’re calling it these days.”

“I’m not lying, we really were just talking!” Lauren grinned, already in her pyjamas as she closed the door between their room and the sleeping kids.

“Sure. Goodnight”

\---

Blaine was still in a good mood when he woke up the next morning, yelling a cheerful hello at the group of girls still sleeping in his dorm and managing to wake up two or three more, which was good since there were only ten minutes until breakfast.

He shared a secretive smile with Kurt over his bowl of porridge, watching as he tried to convince one of the kids from his dorm why having a third helping of bacon was going to do nothing for his energy. Blaine grinned down at his bowl and then ushered his own group of enthusiastic girls over to the badminton courts for their Saturday morning activities. The rest of the day was spent running from pillar to post for everyone; he’d never been so energetic.

Apparently it showed.

By three in the afternoon, the girls were exhausted and all for having early showers followed by a quiet afternoon reading and relaxing in the dorm. So Blaine went back to the pool and opened it up for free swimming time for anyone who wanted. It was a popular choice, the sun beating down on the camp, and even Steve offered his group a chance at a late afternoon swim.

Dinner was a bit later on the weekends, giving Margaret time to drive to town and pick up groceries for the next week. They had a ball making pizzas and cooking them in the kitchen. Blaine spent a lot of extra time on clean up that night, but it didn’t matter. Not much could bring him down from the high of being really happy for the first time in a very long time.  
The next week passed by in a blink of an eye: swimming, cleaning, arts and crafts -- which was apparently Kurt’s favorite by far, and he was a big hit in that session according to Tina. Every waking moment Blaine had was spent being active and looking after the group of girls that he had become strangely attached too.

They were all so different. Emily was a night owl, more often than not the last one to go to sleep and the one to complain the loudest at lights out. Court was quiet, and she’d pick reading a book over any other activity -- most of the time, she got her way. Jessie was a born leader, and she was the first to step in and mediate any disagreement or offer to help the leaders to set things up. Melissa was a bit of a loner, who stood off to the side a lot and Lauren had spent hours coaxing her into the group early on.

Also, by the end of the second week, Blaine could officially say he definitely had a bit of a crush on Kurt Hummel.

For someone who spent more time in front of the mirror than all the other guys, campers and leaders combined, Kurt seemed to have no problems getting dirty. He would crawl through the dusty collision course, followed by a trail of his campers, in the heat of the day, and roll around on the ground playing sports.

It wasn’t that Blaine was watching him all the time, but there was a lot to see from the top of the life guard’s chair near the pool. Kurt didn’t swim shirtless, but Blaine could understand him not wanting to make a scene with the marks he’d seen on on his back. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t any less fun to watch him.

Kurt was always a little more subdued at the pool, at least from Blaine’s perspective. Less running around and more sitting on the edge, dripping wet and keeping an eye on the rough-housing going on around him.

So it was observing Kurt pay attention to his campers swimming on Friday afternoon that distracted Blaine for long enough to cause him to jump when Nick walked up and tapped his foot for attention.

“Blaine, Earth to Blaine, come in please.”

Blaine had to actually shake his head to get rid of some of the foggy feeling that had settled in the late afternoon. The sunlight was getting to him. “Yeah, sorry. What?”

“Can we talk?” Nick looked anxious, so Blaine checked with Kurt and Brittany that they would be okay to keep an eye on the kids for a while and walked with Nick to the edge of the park to sit. 

Nick fidgeted with some blades of grass in front of him when he started talking. “I’ve been trying to get some time to talk to you but everything’s been so busy here, and I thought I would catch you last Friday but you weren't at the campfire and there were, um, conflicting stories about where and why you weren’t there. And not that that’s any of my business, but I just really wanted to apologize to you for what happened at school and for whatever happened with your parents that caused them to move you to another school. I’m just really sorry if I ruined your life, Blaine.”

“Nick, no - don’t worry, it’s okay. It wasn’t your fault my parents kicked me out-”

“They kicked you out?! That’s even worse, oh my god. It was me, wasn’t it? They didn’t want you with me, and that stupid asshole of a headmaster didn’t give us ten minutes to explain.” Nick was sitting with his knees pulled up against his chest and his arms around them. He looked really small and fragile, and something in Blaine’s heart broke for him.

Blaine put an arm around his shoulder, pulling him in a bit closer as he tried to soothe him. “Nick, no. My parents kicked me out because they don’t know how to deal with me as a person, not because of you. Please don’t think it’s because of anything you did.”

They sat there on the grass for a while longer, talking about what had happened when Nick came out to his parents that night and how Jeff had been really stand offish in the weeks since. Blaine saw Kurt and Brittany leaving the pool a few minutes later, walking their campers back to the dorms for pre-dinner showers and clean up before the movie night.

The first group of campers was leaving the next morning, and Blaine hadn’t been around to help with dinner that night. He could hardly feel guilty about the lack of time he’d spent with his campers or helping in the kitchen when Nick was such a mess beside him. “Look Nick, have you talked to Jeff about why you were in that classroom with me?”

Nick looked up, eyes still red rimmed, and he shook his head. “Then you have to consider that maybe Jeff thinks, you know, you like me,” Blaine continued, and Nick’s eyes widened as he took in a quick breath.

“No-”

“I know that and you know that, but we’ve been friends a long time and maybe he just thinks that day was an admission and has back off accordingly. One thing to be said about Dalton boys -- we’re a very gentlemanly bunch.”

“Shit, Blaine, I didn’t even think of that.” Blaine smiled, got up and dusted the grass off his clothes. 

“You should talk to him and not just expect him to know how you feel or what you’re thinking. Just lay it all out on the line and take a chance.”  
\---

That night he went to the campfire, and there was a sense of nostalgia around the counsellors. Only Lauren had decided not to go, and when Blaine had asked why she’d said something about how having alone time in their room was a blessing. He’d poked her and vowed to spend the whole evening out so she could get some peace from his obviously irritating presence. She’d laughed and told him any time after eleven would be great. That hadn’t done much to quell the uneasiness that he felt from the fact that she had not directly disagreed with his statement about being irritating.

Apparently the cups contained scotch that Jack had brought with him. It was a bit of a thing that the older counsellors would bring a bottle each to share on the Friday nights available to them. Blaine kept it to one drink, as he hadn’t had much experience with alcohol and really, he didn’t want to drink a lot at a camp filled with kids for whom he was indirectly responsible.

People started tapering off around ten until it was just him, Mike and Tina, who were making the best of the time they were able to spend time together, and Kurt, who was swirling his straw around in his cup and looking bored. The kids had been herded to bed an hour prior and there were still at least forty minutes before Blaine was willing to go back to his dorm.

“I’m hungry,” Kurt pronounced, standing up from the log he’d been perched on. “Who’s up for a late night kitchen ice cream raid?” Blaine stood up immediately, and probably a little too fast if the look that Tina gave him was any indication.

Mike just shook his head and pulled Tina a little closer. “Nah, we’re good. You guys go ahead.”

That was how, five minutes later, Blaine was tip-toeing across the creaky floorboards in the hall toward the kitchen, and Kurt was giggling quietly, rifling through the freezer to find something for them to eat. “I wonder how much trouble we’d get in for raiding the ice cream supply…” he mused. The room was dark, save the blue light from the insect repelling light up on the wall.

Blaine felt a little thrill up his spine. “I don’t know.”

“A ha.” Kurt skipped over to the drawer and pulled out a couple of spoons to go with the tub of vanilla ice cream he’d uncovered. “Let’s sit up on the counter.”

They sat like that quietly for a while, both taking turns at digging around in the carton with their spoons and sharing conspiratorial looks. 

“So... you and Nick...?” Kurt was not very good at playing coy.

“Are friends,” Blaine finished for him, and Kurt looked back at the ice cream between them with a faint blush on his cheeks. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry or anything, it’s just today you guys were sitting out on the oval and I thought... you know.” His blush was clearly darkening, visible even in the blue light glowing around them. Blaine laughed softly, spooning some more ice cream out of the carton. “I only came out to my dad a few months ago. I couldn’t imagine how he’d react to an actual boyfriend on the scene. Not that there are many options for that at McKinley.” 

Kurt was looking anywhere but at him by that point.

“I didn’t get much of a chance to find out,” Blaine replied. “Dalton was very to-each-their-own, so long as there was no bullying and you don’t act on ‘your thing.’” Kurt looked up curiously, so Blaine continued. “I came out to my parents months ago and they were fine with it, as far as I knew. But a few weeks ago, Nick and I were in a classroom talking and one of the teachers found us there. The school presumed that we were up to no good and called our parents.” 

“But you said Nick and you weren’t...” 

Blaine placed his spoon on the counter beside his leg. “We’re not. Nick wanted to get some advice about Jeff -- you know Jeff?”

Kurt smiled. “The blond one with long legs who doesn’t know what shirts are?”

Sighing, Blaine picked the spoon back up again, going for more ice cream even though he felt full. “That’s the one.”

Kurt frowned, turning a bit more so he was practically cross-legged on the counter. “You’re upset?”

“No, no- well I was at first, but a lot has changed in the last few weeks. Today was Nick worrying that he’d messed things up with Jeff because of being caught in that room with me. I had to convince him that maybe he should have a conversation with the guy before he gave up all hope. On top of that, he didn’t know that my parents had kicked me out.”

Kurt breathed out heavily. “You’ve had a rough couple of weeks, haven’t you?” Blaine nodded. 

They couldn’t stay there all night, and the next day was going to be a long one of getting their first group of campers home, then cleaning the camp and getting ready for the next lot coming in the day after.

“We should probably go to bed,” Kurt said.

“Yeah, it’s getting late,” Blaine agreed. They hopped down from the counter and Kurt went to put the ice cream back where he’d found it while Blaine washed up the spoons and put them away. 

Kurt pulled the main door to the hall closed behind them and gave Blaine a huge smile. “Thanks for coming to get some ice cream. It was a nice.”

Blaine blushed, and waved awkwardly before saying goodnight and heading back to his dorm.

Oh yes, he definitely had a crush on Kurt Hummel.

\---

Saturday was, for all intents and purposes, quite relaxed in the wake of the past two weeks. Kids packed and found their belongings they’d mislaid all over the camp. The goodbyes were a little tough, each of the girls a tad tearful but ready to leave. Grim-faced parents hauled suitcases and duffel bags and took their progenies home.

The late afternoon was spent cleaning. The general cleaning done by the campers wasn’t half as effective as that done by the staff: a good bleaching and scrub of the bathrooms and the floors in the dorm, which were able to collect so much sand that Lauren was cracking jokes about building a sandpit there.

Blaine went to help out with dinner around four, as per usual, only to have Margaret kick him out and tell him to go relax for a few hours. With only the counsellors in camp for the night, dinner was going to be easy.

After dinner, they gathered down at the camp fire site and Steve ran a short debrief on how the past two weeks had gone and what had been planned for the next group. It was interesting for Blaine, only having the past two weeks to learn from. He spoke up about having become unofficial kitchen hand, and Margaret and Steve made a point of thanking him for his contribution.

They were all sitting around quite comfortably, and Steve hushed the circle by gesturing with his hands. “Now on a more serious note, the sneaking around at night needs to stop immediately.” Blaine looked straight down at his feet. “I’m not naming names, but know that you’re all in charge of and responsible for kids. We had a lot of trouble with this last year and I really don’t want to have to set time limits on you guys.”

Blaine’s face was beet red. He looked up just long enough to catch Kurt glancing over at him with a little smile on his face. It was so easy to slip into the casual routine of camp life. There weren’t many rules and everyone got along really well. Maybe they’d gotten a little too relaxed.

“On that note, I’m done for the night and am going to bed. Enjoy your freedom, we’re back to work tomorrow.” With that Steve left, and so did Margaret and a few of the others soon after. Mike had suggested a movie night while they didn’t have any kids, so the group that was left made their way to the hall, stopping to grab their sleeping bags, pillows, and some candy they’d stashed away.

There was a surprisingly large collection of movies to choose from. They only let the kids choose between two, but apparently in the locked cabinet under the TV there were at least sixty to choose from. They settled on Mulan and spread out on the floor, Blaine on the end next to Kurt, with Tina on the other side of Kurt and Mike on the other side of her. 

A few minutes into the movie, Blaine realized there was no way he was going to take in any of the story. Sure, he’d seen it before, but Kurt was sitting right there and Blaine felt like his entire right side was buzzing because of it. Their pillows were already quite close but he couldn’t help himself and, under the guise of stretching, ended up a full inch closer. He could see Kurt in his peripheral, eyes trained carefully and completely on the TV in front of them, but he was biting his lip. Meanwhile, Blaine was contemplating twenty different ways to hold his hand while they watched.

Was it too much? Was he even interested in holding Blaine’s hand? What if he made a noise and everyone just looked at them? Making first moves was really, really hard and there should be some sort of code, at least in Blaine’s opinion.

Tina rolled over on Kurt’s other side, forcing Kurt a few inches closer to Blaine and really, he could have moved further away but Kurt didn’t seem to mind. He just rolled his eyes and their arms were pressed together. Blaine could feel the heat radiating through Kurt’s sweater. Kurt let his hand drop on the pillow in front of him and Blaine just stared at it, inspecting the contours of his long elegant fingers and decidedly not thinking about them pressing into his skin.

Because that would be a bad thing to think about.

Blaine reacted by putting his own hand down on the pillow, using Kurt’s weaved wrist band as a reason to go closer still. He ran a finger along the band and whispered, “That’s nice…” Kurt smiled in response, ducking his head.

He left his hand near Kurt’s, blood buzzing in his ears and every nerve on high alert. Blaine could hear every sound around them except the movie, or other people. They were irrelevant anyway. Kurt dipped his head closer to Blaine’s ear. “It’s really hard to focus on a movie I’ve seen five thousand times.” 

It was now or never. Steeling himself and shuffling his fingers inch by inch up the pillow, Blaine carefully put his hand on top of Kurt’s, feeling the tension in every sinew and thanking every freaking deity he knew of that Kurt didn’t pull his hand away. Or move. Blaine just smiled a little wider at the TV and that’s how they stayed until it was finished.

\---

Blaine still had a smile on his face the next morning when he woke up to the sound of Lauren getting up and collecting her shower supplies before heading off to the bathrooms. He allowed himself a few minutes to bask, snuggling down further into soft blankets and listening to the noise of nature outside the window.

There really hadn’t been much time to just sit down and appreciate how beautiful everything surrounding the camp was -- how the trees swayed to the breeze and birds welcomed the morning with song in high spirits. Really, Blaine knew, everything led back to Kurt.

Before he knew it, Lauren was back from her shower, throwing her wet towel at his head and making crude implications to exactly what could have caused him to be quite that blissfully happy. He grumbled at her, but went back to looking like the Cheshire cat while throwing on some clothes and scooting off to breakfast.

That Sunday meant a new group of kids. There hadn’t been any arguments between the counsellors and everyone seemed happy with their assignments of campers, so the dynamic of the pairs wasn’t brought into question and no one was reassigned.

Breakfast was rushed, then they moved on to introductions and camp rules, followed by setting up the new kids and getting all of them settled and comfortable. Blaine could see why people chose to work there year after year. There was no opportunity for boredom, no chance to spend the money they were making, and every day was filled with purpose and adventure.

After two weeks of running around after kids, planning activities, and being needed like that, Blaine could definitely see the appeal. There was also the added bonus of having Mike, Tina, and Kurt around all the time.

He and Lauren didn’t run into any problems that night, as their group settled easily and they caught an early night. On Monday, Blaine found himself in the kitchens to help with dinner. Kurt and his campers were there already, and Margaret looked about ready to start tearing out her hair. There was something suspicious and lumpy all over the floor.

Kurt looked frazzled, which was saying something. “Tina had to go and help out Brittany and Jeff out in their dorm -- your timing is impeccable. Can you help us get that mess cleaned up?” Blaine looked at Kurt with a raised eyebrow. 

“What is it?” 

Kurt grimaced. “Eggs and breadcrumbs. Fred and George over there thought it would be funny to mix it with their hands.” Blaine looked at the boys Kurt was referring too. They looked about nine years old and both had shocking red hair. He could definitely understand the reference.

Without bothering to ask why they had been mixing eggs and breadcrumbs together in the first place, Blaine beckoned two of the other boys over to where he was standing. “Names?”

“Max.”

“Jake.”

“Right, Max, you go and get the mop and bucket. Jake, you get the broom.” He looked back at Kurt, who was helping another one of the boys stir something in a pot a few meters away. “You’ve both just volunteered to help me with the dishes after dinner.

Max and Jake went to get the cleaning supplies and Kurt finally looked at Blaine over the kid’s shoulder, winking. Just like that, it didn’t matter to Blaine what they did for the rest of the evening. Kurt was happy.

The boys proved more a hindrance than a help with the dishes, throwing suds at each other behind Blaine’s back. By the time they were finished and the kitchen set back in order, he was kind of glad they weren't in his group. He sent them back to their counsellors and said goodnight to Margaret, who was still up organizing the food for breakfast the next day.

\---

Lauren was just finishing up her story to the kids when Blaine got back to their dorm, still warm from his shower, and he hung his towel on the balcony posts before closing the door behind him. He tiptoed to their room and collapsed on the bed. If you had told him a few weeks prior that he would be asleep before ten pm almost every night during summer, there was no way he would have believed it. 

“So Blaine, has Hummel wooed you yet?” Lauren always tended to make an entrance.

In the middle of taking off his shoes, Blaine looked over at her. “Wooed, Lauren? Really?”

She nodded, perching on her bed and tilting her head inquisitively. “You like him, right? Because I know he likes you.”

Blaine didn’t understand why people liked to interfere all the time. It seemed like ever since he left Dalton, everyone had stakes in his love life and ninety precent of them wanted to hook him up with Kurt. “Can’t you and everyone else just stay out of it?” It was late, he was tired and grumpy, but luckily Lauren didn’t mind the tone.

“Aww Blainers, we just want to see you boys happy and in love... preferably with each other. Besides, it would be hot.”

“Lauren.” 

“Okay, okay, just... we care, you know?” Blaine raised an eyebrow.

“Who’s we?” he asked. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a moment, before her expression smoothed out into a grin. 

“You’re so easy to mess with, oh my god.” 

\---

As the new group of kids settled in, and Blaine took to memorizing all the new names as they started the whole routine over again. There were a Lisa, Leisel, and Liza in that bunch and keeping them straight was going to be hard enough. For the middle couple of weeks, Margaret and Steve’s daughter Kaylie was helping out in the kitchens, so Blaine took to spending more time at the pool area, keeping it clean and watching groups of campers whenever he could. 

On Tuesday, their group spent the afternoon in a dancing activity with Brittany and Jeff’s group, so Blaine left early to supervise the swimming pool. Tina was already there, lounging back with her feet dipped in the water, smiling at him while he settled next to her. The water was warm, and nothing could stop the excitable group of boys from wrestling and yelling at each other in the late afternoon sunlight. 

“So Blaine, how’s your new group?” Tina asked, kicking her foot to splash water at one of the boys. 

“Good. So many new names and faces to remember, though,” he said, and Tina laughed in response.

“I guess we’re just used to it.” There was a pause, and then she spoke up again. “Have you ever had a boyfriend, Blaine?” The question was so out of the blue that Blaine turned his head to look at her, quick enough to hear something crack in his neck.

He brought a palm up to knead at the area, but it didn’t seem to hurt. “N-no, why?”

She smiled, head still tipped back to catch rays of light from the sun, which was low in the sky. “Because I had never had one until Mike and it’s a rush, isn’t it? Those first few weeks or months of dancing around the thought of someone having a huge crush on you and your liking them back it’s... wonderful.” 

Tina shot him a huge smile and Blaine just nodded, automatically agreeing, shrugging off the shiver down his spine. He thought about asking where Kurt was, but that would have been too obvious, even for him. 

“Kurt’s gone to lie down,” she mentioned casually, as if she could read his mind. “He’s been looking a little paler than usual and was coughing a lot last night.”

Blaine shot her a concerned look. “He’s sick?” 

“It’s probably just a cold, but I doubt he would say no to a visitor bearing soup.” He thought about it for a minute. Finding soup in the kitchen wouldn’t be too hard, and while he was at it he could probably find some tissues and another blanket to offer. “I’ve got here covered if you want to go now.” 

Blaine smiled at her, and jumped up to head off on his quest.

\---

Blaine had never been to Kurt and Tina’s room. He’d walked past, had met them out the front, and had even, at one point, stared longingly at the window for twenty minutes while his group played out on the lawn. But he’d never had the express intention of actually going inside. 

He knocked twice with no response. Disheartened, he almost left to go back to the pool, but then there was a quiet, “Come in.”

Opening the door and crossing over the threshold into the dark room, Blaine thought about the million other things he should have brought with him. Mostly he was thinking flowers would have been a good choice.But Kurt was lying in bed, covered with blankets and surrounded by enough tissues to sink the Queen Mary, and he looked so adorably young.

“Shit. Blaine!” Kurt’s head disappeared under the blankets with the rest of his body in a heartbeat, and he was just a pile of blankets on the bunk. “What are you doing here? I’m sick! This is Tina’s fault isn’t it?” Blaine wasn’t sure if it was a brush off or if Kurt was just surprised. 

“Hi,” Blaine said, dumbly.

There was a muffled reply from the blankets. “I look awful and if you don’t want to get sick, you should probably go.”

Blaine bit at his bottom lip. It was an obvious dismissal. “Okay, I just wanted to see that you were okay and had, you know, everything you need.” He felt awkward. Friendly concern shouldn’t have been so awkward. “If I had brought flowers would you have disappeared so fast?” 

The question slipped out. He probably shouldn’t have said that. 

The top of Kurt’s head popped up behind the blankets. “You brought flowers?”

“Well, no, but the thought was there.” Blaine flushed. He thought he probably looked even more incompetent than he felt already.

Kurt smiled, his nose tinted red and his hair all over the place. “Well, thank you for the thought. I’m serious though, if you don’t want the plague you should probably go.”

“Okay, but Kurt... I-I hope you feel better soon.”

\---

The few days after, Blaine went about his duties. He was a little down, but Tina gave him assurance that Kurt was indeed getting better and brighter and would be up and about in no time. 

The problem with a camp was that it was full of children, and children got sick easily. So on the fifth or so day, when Lauren got a cold, he really didn’t think anything of it. 

Friday night, when his hot shower felt just a little too good to be true and his bones felt laden with lead, he pushed that aside as well. It wasn’t until he was at the campfire, sitting next to Kurt and coughing harshly, that someone put a hand to his forehead and he relished the cool feel of it so much that the inevitable truth was forced on him. 

Blaine was sick. Lauren was sick. Half of their campers were sick and it was probably all his fault. His fault for his stupid, whimsical need to visit Kurt while he wasn’t well and god, he couldn’t figure out why it was so hot in his room or how he’d gotten there in the first place. He didn’t even know how long he’d been there. 

His lungs felt like someone had run a cheese grater on them and there were really fucking loud people outside his window. Blaine put a pillow over his head, whimpering softly when it took possibly the last scrap of energy he had to do so.

\---

Blaine didn’t know what day it was. He was just barely lucid enough to think properly – and by thinking properly, he meant feeling guilty about everything he hadn’t been doing while lying he was in bed sleeping, coughing, and snivelling. Lauren was sitting next to him with a hand towel on his forehead and god, how long had she been there? Where were the kids, and what the hell was going on?

“He lives!” she proclaimed loudly, causing Blaine to hiss as the sound pierced through his head like hot knives.

“Sorry, I wasn’t actually really loud, but you’re awake enough for Tylenol now at least. That fever knocked you on your ass, boy, and I could really use some help around here.”

Blaine shuffled up the bed, closing his eyes against the dull throbbing that resonated there. “What day is it?”

Lauren passed him some tablets and a bottle of water. “Monday.” 

He’d been out since Friday. 

“How are the kids?” The last bit came out with a coughing fit and they both had to wait while Blaine drank some water to settle it.

“Most of them are better now. You just stay there for a bit and we’ll see how stable you are after the Tylenol kicks in, okay? There’s no point rushing it.”

\---

It was Wednesday before Blaine was truly up and about again, and he was still coughing at random intervals but at least the headache and sore limbs had stopped. He made it to breakfast and Tina told him about how close they had come to rushing him to the hospital on Friday night, but apparently the camp nurse (Margaret had a lot of side jobs, it seemed) had declared it a bad fever. He’d been carried to bed by Steve, and Blaine tried not to linger on that too much because it was a somewhat uncomfortable thought.

Again on Saturday night there had been a similar discussion, but they had settled on shifts to keep an eye on him. “Did you see the flowers in your room?” Tina asked, “He spent hours picking them out when we looked after yours and Lauren’s campers Saturday afternoon.”

The flowers were standing in an old metal water jug on his bedside table. One of the first things Blaine had noticed when he’d woken up was the little card standing next to them, saying: “feel better soon.” It wasn’t signed, but it didn’t need to be; Kurt had brought them. That also meant he’d seen Blaine looking like crap, and probably smelling even worse. He suddenly realized why Kurt had been so eager to hide the week before.

“I should go say thank you.” Despite his thoughts, that was all he said out loud.

Tina grinned. “You know he likes you don’t you? Please tell me you’re not that oblivious, Blaine, or I’m going to smack you.”

“Tina, we’re--” He really didn’t know what to say. Yes, he liked Kurt -- it was easy enough to admit that to himself. But Kurt was gorgeous and enthusiastic, and it was kind of terrifying to think about what Blaine’s parents would think. Maybe he should just sing him a song or something, but there weren't any songs with the theme of I-Like-You-But-I’m-Scared-Of-Rejection-And-You’re-Really-Pretty. At least, he couldn’t think of any off the top of his head. “--I’m new at this, and I don’t know what he’s told you but… I’m trying.”

She stopped pestering after that, finishing up her breakfast and going back to her room to get the last of her group organized for their day's activities.

Kurt walked into the kitchen while he was cleaning up, and Blaine flashed him a smile from where he was tidying up his dishes. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

Blaine kept his head down, seemingly fascinated by the bubbles on his breakfast plate while he ran it under water, but really it was because he didn’t want Kurt to see the red he could feel burning against his cheeks. “For the flowers-- they’re lovely.” You’re lovely.

“Oh, no worries. It was a great way to keep the girls entertained for the afternoon.” Blaine chanced a look up and Kurt was smiling at him. There were dimples evident in his cheeks. “Do you want to... um, do you want to go for a walk later? Maybe after dinner?”

That was it -- that now or never moment. “That would be nice.”

\---

It was so hard to concentrate that day. Blaine’s nerves were on edge, to the point that Lauren made a few quips about his jumpiness, but it wasn’t until after dinner that things got really complicated. It was probably as close as they were going to get to a date, at least for then and really, he hadn’t brought anything suitable to wear for a date. So it was just a walk, and Kurt had already seen him at his absolute worst if he had been the one who actually put the flowers in his room. He’d also seen Blaine in his swimming shorts. Blaine’s only pair of jeans was still bunched in the corner with almost everything else Blaine had brought with him, because there really hadn’t been any time to do washing since he’d gotten better, and--

“Dude. Calm the hell down and go have a shower or something. You’re making me nervous and I have nothing to do with this.” Lauren was succinct, as per usual.

“How do I know if this is a date or not, Lauren? What do I wear? Not knowing is driving me mad.” Blaine sat on his bed and looked around at the chaos and destruction he’d caused in their room.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Did he ask you?”

“Well, yes.”

“And you’re going on a moonlit walk?”

“Mmhmm.”

“It’s a date. Or even if it’s not, it’s a prelude to one, so put some effort in but don’t overdo it.”

Blaine sighed. “You’re really not helpful.”

Lauren shrugged. “I’m trying. You’re kinda touchy, aren’t you?”

Getting up and digging around in his bag, Blaine managed to track down a pair of shorts that were okay and a clean shirt. “Should I really shower before a walk?”

Rolling her eyes and throwing a towel at him, Lauren laughed. “Use it to take care of the nerves.” And then she winked. Oh.

“Lauren, the showers are communal.”

“Then you’d better go before anyone else uses them.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him as he made a rather bashful exit.

\---

Dressed and ready, Blaine met Kurt, who was waiting outside of his dorm and seemingly had brought a bigger array of clothing than Blaine had because he was wearing blue jeans and a tight polo that was definitely unfair.

Exchanging greetings, they set off in no particular direction other than away from camp, walking close enough together that holding hands was almost superfluous. It didn’t stop Blaine from shivering every time their shoulders bumped, goosebumps making the hair on his arms stand on end.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Kurt said, smiling and looking at Blaine out of the corner of his eye. “You had us all worried for a while there.”

Blaine smiled back. What else could he do, really? “Yeah, it’s been a long week. Shame I can’t remember most of it. I feel really bad about not being around to help with the campers, though.”

“You were sick. You can’t help that, Blaine. Besides, you were doing more than your fair share before anyway. It gave the rest of us time to catch up.” They came to a stop under a large tree on the edge of the campgrounds. “These are the nicest clothes I brought and they’re still going to get grass stains, aren’t they?” Kurt asked, sitting on the grass.

“We can keep walking if you want,” Blaine offered, holding out a hand to Kurt to help him up.

“Don’t be silly,” Kurt grabbed his hand anyway, pulling Blaine down to the ground with him and forgetting to let go. Well no, it was unlikely he forgot, but their hands stayed intertwined and resting on Blaine’s knee, and he couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.

“Is this a date?” Blaine blurted out, trying to start a conversation but the words came out and he immediately worried that he’d made it sort of uncomfortable. Kurt shifted a little on the grass next to him. It was cruel of Blaine just to spring it on him like that, so he tried to do some damage control he continued on. “I mean, it’s just really nice but I should have brought like a picnic dessert or something if it was, and I didn’t know what to wear and… I’ve just gone and made this really awkward, haven’t I?”

Kurt laughed, and Blaine felt like he was a blathering idiot. It was just a walk, and Tina was wrong, and Kurt just probably wanted a friend, and why was he so awkward?

“Even without the dessert it does have a sort of date-y feel, doesn’t it?” Kurt replied, bringing a whole new onslaught of concerns to Blaine’s mind. If it was a date, did that mean there would be kissing? Were they even allowed to be out alone together?Oh god,Steve was going to kill them and they would never be allowed back.

“You look like you’re panicking. Stop panicking. It doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be.” Kurt’s face was impassive -- kind of like he was trying not to get emotional and everything was awkward and horrible and god, Blaine felt like he had ruined the whole evening.

Blaine backtracked quickly. “No-- no. I’d like that. A date. Um, with you.” He was hoping the ground would open and swallow him, right up until the moment he saw Kurt’s face and it looked like all of Kurt’s Christmases had come at once. That made the awkwardness worth it in the end.

“Sorry, I should have been clearer. Yes, Kurt, I would like this to be a date, dessert-less or not.” That was better, it had to be.

Kurt was fiddling with the grass in front of him when he said, “It doesn’t have to be completely dessert-less.” He brought his hand straight to his forehead, groaning. “God, that was a terrible line, I’m so sorry-- I’m not good at this.”

Blaine laughed, turning and using the hand that wasn’t still interlaced with Kurt’s to pull Kurt’s other hand away from his face. “It was perfect.”

Kurt’s face was really close. Blaine knew he could definitely bridge the gap and kiss him, and he was pretty sure Kurt would be okay with that. God, his eyes were beautiful like that, flecked with light and dark blue and reflecting the moonlight, and Blaine really had to stop thinking so much.

So he did.

Kurt’s lips were exactly as soft as they looked, warm and a little wet, but that was okay. Blaine got lost in it, right up until he had to breathe, but Kurt cupped his face right along his jawline so Blaine settled for breathing through his nose and taking what he could get. He was dizzy, and every other thought stopped while Blaine revelled in the feeling of Kurt’s mouth and hands, trying to memorize every feeling that came along with it.

Finally parting, they took a few seconds just staring at each other before looking away, grinning. It was perfect, Kurt was perfect, and everything was felt pretty much perfect.

They talked for a little while longer, and shared another kiss before Blaine walked Kurt back to his building and said goodnight. It wasn’t a long date, but it was the first and best one Blaine had ever had.

\---

“Blaine, you’re radiating hormones and your sighing is going to bring the roof down on us.” Lauren was lying on her bed reading a book. Or not actually reading, apparently. “Either tell me everything or go have a cold shower or something.”

“He’s really nice.”

“Well congratulations on figuring that out. From what I hear, people have been telling you that for ages.”

“Five weeks is hardly ages, Lauren, and so sorry it took me so long to figure it out-- who’s been telling you anyway?” Blaine scoffed back at her. “And we’re not even close to cold shower stage yet.” That was a lie, a complete and total one. But like hell he was telling her that.

“So are you going to tell me or not?”

He felt like he was being trapped in a corner. “A gentleman never kisses and tells.”

“So you kissed.”

Damn.

“Goodnight, Lauren.”

“Night, Blaine. Sweet dreams!”

\---

It was barely dawn when he woke up, and he was full of energy and excitement. Blaine felt better than he had in days and it really was a beautiful morning.

It was Friday, the last day before their current group of campers left, and he felt like he hadn’t spent any time with them at all. He snuck out the side door and stood on the stairs outside of it, just breathing everything in.

There were small signs of life. Steve was sitting next to the long-extinguished campfire with a large cup of coffee, and Blaine dipped his head in greeting. Also, there was clanging from the kitchen which meant either Margaret or Kaylie was preparing breakfast. It was going to be a good day; he could feel it in every fiber of being.

There was a tug on his shirt from Lisa. Or was it Lizel? She was ready for breakfast already and Blaine laughed, going back inside and trying to convince the others that waking up early could be fun.

To say he was vehemently outvoted was an understatement, but there were a few who, with bleary eyes, chose to go to breakfast early. When the others were up and fed, the group left on a bushwalk adventure followed by a dip in the pool. It was late in the afternoon when the exhausted campers trooped to the showers and then back to the dorm to get ready for movie night. Blaine had managed to burn off most of his excess energy too, stopping for a quick shower and then going to help Kaylie with dinner since Margaret had the evening off, for a change.

Back around the campfire a few hours later, the counsellors discussed the pros and cons of having three changeovers and slightly smaller groups of campers that year. The people who had been there for years talked about the various set ups they had tried in the past. Meanwhile, Blaine and Kurt exchanged quiet smiles and Kurt shared the marshmallows he toasted in the open flames.

Before they knew it, Steve and Margaret were ushering the kids to bed and the night was over. Lauren muttered something to Blaine about a ‘late shower,’ and then winked in Kurt’s direction to Tina, who nodded conspiratorially.

“Ever feel like all our friends are trying to set us up?” Kurt asked nonchalantly, and Blaine grinned.

“I don’t know, their subtlety could use some work.” Kurt laughed at that, shoving his hands further into the pockets of his pants. Blaine watched him for a moment before asking, “I’ve got some sodas in my room, wanna share one while we’ve been given permission?”

Kurt looked kind of sheepish and adorable. “It’s a bit ridiculous isn't it? They’re basically planning time for us to be alone around us like we’re not here.”

They walked together toward Blaine’s dorm, going in through the side door as inconspicuously as they could, considering half the other counsellors talking about them in hushed tones. Blaine could have sworn he heard a whoop from Jeff and Brittany’s room, but he chose to ignore it.

“Should I...” Kurt motioned towards Lauren’s bed before sitting carefully on edge of it.

“My bed won’t bite, Kurt, but yeah that’s fine. Would you like a drink?” Kurt nodded and Blaine started rifling through the little side cupboard next to his bed. “They were right here...”

Pulling open the drawer above it to check there instead, Blaine blinked, stopping and staring at the contents. Along with his few stashed cans of soda, there was a strategically placed, obscenely large box of condoms, and next to that a bottle of Easy Glide lube, for the best sensation!

Kurt got up, probably wondering why Blaine was staring, and caught sight of what was in the drawer. Watching his reaction was like watching a trainwreck in slow motion.

“I see.”

“Kurt, it’s not what you think, they’re not--”

“Planning a little ahead of yourself don’t you think?” Blaine never thought he would hear Kurt sound like that, cold and cutting. It would have been a little more frightening if Kurt hadn’t walked straight to the door. “Forget it, Blaine. You can’t seriously think even I would be that easy. Just because I made my feelings pretty plain doesn’t mean I’m just some easy fuck.”

\---

“You can’t not talk to me forever, Anderson.” Lauren sighed, plopping down on the bed across from Blaine as he went back to folding his clean laundry. This had been going on all day.

“Admit that it was you that planted that stuff in my drawer, or that you know who did,” he replied, digging out a matching sock to the one he already had. “He accused me of thinking he was easy, Lauren. You don’t know how much that hurts.”

“How are we going to do this when the new campers arrive if you won’t even hold a conversation with me? How’s that going to look?” She seemed sad, or at least genuinely upset at the situation.

Honestly, Blaine couldn’t quite believe that she had done it: put the condoms and lube in his drawer, then conspired with Tina to make sure that he and Kurt had found them together. “Just tell me why the fuck you would even think that Kurt and I would go there while at camp. We haven’t even been on a proper date! This is… crazy.”

Lauren just sighed again loudly, getting up to leave. “If it’s any consolation, it really wasn’t my idea and...”

“If you’re not going to tell me whose idea it was, you may as well stop right there. Because you know, and you had a part in it.” Blaine’s voice came out strange, rough and mean. .

“Blaine, you can’t just not talk to anyone--”

“Why the hell can’t you guys all let me live my own life? I may as well have stayed with my parents and pretended to be straight, because apparently there are people wanting to help me have sex with Kurt. When have I ever, ever given the impression that I need so many people interfering?”

“Well you--”

He was angry by that point. “The question was rhetorical and I’m done with it. I’m done with all the little nudges and winking and less than subtle hints. Leave me alone!”

Blaine’s outburst at Lauren was the start of the longest week imaginable. That same day, the new kids arrived and he put on a happy face, replying only when people asked direct questions. Mike tried to corner him later that afternoon about what the hell was going on, but Blaine got away. His cousin had undoubtedly heard from Tina and was just doing the same thing as everyone else – sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong.

By the time he was ready for bed, Blaine had been approached by Mike and Tina separately, by Brittany once, and Steve had shot a worried look at him from across the dining hall.

\---

Kurt was washing his dinner plate when Blaine caught up with him, touching him on the shoulder to get his attention. “Kurt, wait. Talk to me.”

“I don’t have any reason to, Blaine. I’m not interested in excuses. Why did you even bring that stuff to a summer camp for children?” he replied tersely.

“Kurt, I didn’t-- I didn’t bring it here or put it there or expect anything from you or anybody else for that matter. You know why I came here. It was an excuse to get away!” That wasn’t entirely truthful but Kurt being there was a perk, not an agenda.

“I have nothing to say to you.”

Kurt left, leaving Blaine standing there feeling kind of helpless. With a sigh, he went to take a quick shower. Not talking to anyone sucked.

\---

Walking from the showers back to his room, Blaine could hear hushed voices coming through the door. “You have to come clean, Puckerman. Everyone is pissed, Kurt’s been hurt, Blaine is a wreck because Kurt’s ignoring him, and nobody really knows what happened but Steve is pissed because this was exactly what he’d been trying to avoid.”

“I stepped in it, didn’t I?” Puck? It was Puck? What did he have to do with it and why was he even there?

Lauren laughed mirthlessly. “No, you didn’t step in it. They don’t know you had anything to do with it. Instead, everyone else is paying the price for your little ‘nudge’ and nobody likes it.”

So Lauren had been telling the truth, and she wasn’t the person who planted the stuff in Blaine’s drawer.

“I was just trying to help. My boy’s been in love with him since the second Blaine stepped into the school.” Puck sounded apologetic, or as much as one could through a door, at least.

“Fix it, Puck. Talk to them.”

He could have confronted Puck on the spot. Blaine was pissed off that they had meddled in the first place, but he had to admit to a certain amount of curiosity to how they’d possibly thought that that was the right way to get Kurt and Blaine’s attention.

Blaine didn’t really know him very well, but it felt like there should have been a reason Puck felt so protective of Kurt in the first place.

Listening in created more questions than it answered. What if he just went to Kurt’s room and asked him to come and listen? That caused Blaine to scoff under his breath. There was no reason for Kurt to trust him. As far as he knew, this was no one’s fault but Blaine’s.

Sighing, Blaine knocked on the door -- a habit he’d gotten into the first time he’d walked in on Lauren in a towel.

“Come in.” It was Lauren who spoke up but when he walked in, sure enough, Puck was sitting on his bed, looking dejected.

“Hi, Blaine.”

“What are you doing here, Puck?” He figured he would get more out of it if he didn’t let on that he’d heard anything.

Puck met his eyes. “We need to talk.”

Blaine raised an eyebrow. “Sounds serious.”

“Kurt’s in love with you.” Blaine stared at him, eyes widening slightly. It was one thing to hear Puck say that when he didn’t know Blaine was listening, but another to have it said straight to his face. 

“Well thank you for that, Noah.” Lauren butted in from across the room. “Start from the beginning, maybe?”

“I am starting from the beginning.” Puck looked frustrated. “I’ve known him for years. I mean sure, for at least one of them I was throwing him in dumpsters, but it’s different now. Since we’ve been in glee club together, we’re tight, you know?”

Blaine was dubious.

“Blaine, I was trying to help. You don’t know the shit that he gets at McKinley. You might have seen a bit of it while you were there at the end of the year, but Kurt is... he’s awesome.”

It sounded like Puck was in love with Kurt, if Blaine was being honest. “You sound like I have more to be worried about than the fact that he’s not talking to me at the moment.”

“No. No it’s not like that.” Puck ran a hand over his mohawk, “He’s not my type, if you know what I mean.”

“Clearly.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his tone. “So what are you doing?”

“Just let me talk, okay?” Blaine glanced at Lauren, who gave him a supportive look, and he nodded at Puck to continue

“I’ve known Kurt since elementary school and even then, before we were bros, he was smart, and unapologetic about who he is, and I can respect that. I came down here a few weeks ago--”

Lauren cut in. “The beginning, Puck, come on.”

“Okay so, toward the end of last year he was getting picked on pretty bad. We had to dress up for something for glee club, boys versus girls, and Kurt went with the girls for Lady Gaga. It wasn’t pretty, you know? There was fighting and Finn had just moved in with him -- you know Finn right?”

“In passing,” Blaine replied with a nod.

“Well, it wasn’t cool. There were people picking on Kurt pretty badly, the football team mostly. But we wanted to help you know? Then we thought that the glee club was getting closed down because we lost a competition, but Coach Sylvester said we could keep going.”

Puck paused, looking to Lauren to back him up. She just shrugged. “Don’t look at me; I’m not in the damn glee club. It would do nothing for my status.”

“Wait, you go to our school?” Blaine asked, genuinely surprised. He’d never seen her there and she hadn’t said or implied anything of the sort up until that point.

“Yes, but I’m on the wrestling team and older than the lot of you,” she replied.

“How have we been living together for five weeks and you’ve never said anything about going to the same school as me?”

“It’s summer and--” Lauren started to reply, but stopped when Puck glared at her.

“You wanted me to explain?” 

“Sorry.”

“Anyway, long story short, Kurt’s been getting picked on by the other football players -- not me -- and is trying to get used to living with Finn, who he had a crush on, and he and Mercedes don’t hang out as much as they used to, and then you stroll into the choir room.”

“What do I have to do with this?” Blaine asked, unable to help himself.

“Everything, man. He changed the moment you got there -- stood a little taller, dressed differently than he used to, and he smiles more. Then I heard him and Tina talking by his locker that he likes you. So I asked Mike and hey, you’re gay too and that’s sweet cause maybe he’ll have a chance, but then you’re fucking oblivious.” 

Blaine had only been in the school for two weeks, including final exams, so he had no idea how Puck was writing him off as oblivious. “You say that like I had a chance to--”

“I talked to you at the party, Blaine, remember? You were oblivious.”

That was a fair point. “Okay, continue.”

“So when I heard you were coming here, I tried to ask Steve if I could come too, you know, to look out for everyone. But he said no because last year I got caught with Kaylie and he was so pissed. So I snuck in--”

“Noah, we don’t need to hear about your conquests,” Lauren sighed.

“--and talked to Lauren here about you two and what was going on. She said you two were obviously jonesing for each other but you weren't making any moves.”

Blaine stared at him for a moment before turning to look at Lauren, trying to figure out when she would have had the chance to talk to Puck, but then it hit him. The campfire, the night he and Kurt had snuck into the kitchen for ice cream. “You said you wanted to be alone?” 

She at least had the good grace to blush. “He’s very convincing, shut up.”

“I just wanted to help and-- you guys are different.”

“Say it with me, Puckermen: wooing not fucking.” Puck shot Lauren a look, and she smirked. The conversation was like a tennis match between them, and Blaine took a few minutes to process through everything he’d just been told. 

“So how many times have you been here?” he asked, still trying to figure it all out in his head.

“Just the weekends. I pitch a tent out in the trees over there.” Puck pointed toward one of the walls. “As a bonus, I get to camp and get caught up with Kaylie.” He smirked.

“You’re an ass, Noah,” Lauren commented.

“Why did you have you get involved?” Blaine asked. “I mean, you claim to have all this faith in Kurt, but not that we could get our shit together ourselves? That makes no sense.”

“I didn’t mean for this to happen, I just thought it would be a little push if he saw you were interested in more than making moon-eyes and holding hands,” Puck explained.

“You were wrong, Puck. I like making moon-eyes and holding hands, and now you’ve screwed everything up and he won’t even talk to me. Thanks for that.” Blaine wasn’t going to cry there, not in front of those two. All the emotion that had been building inside of him all week was threatening to overwhelm him. “I’m going for a walk.”

With that he left, trying to figure out how to talk to Kurt without it sounding like Puck and Lauren had no faith in them to make their own choices. It all hurt.

\---

When he came back a while later, Puck was gone.

“He’s gone to talk to Kurt,” Lauren said, and Blaine just nodded, not sure if he was ready to talk to her. Sure, she hadn’t been to blame for the plan itself, but she had helped. 

“I’m sorry, Blaine. I didn’t know that was what he would do, if it makes you feel any better. I suggested candy.” It did a bit, but he still wasn’t ready to talk to her about it.

There was a sudden knock on the door and Margaret stuck her head in a split second later. “Counsellor meeting, on the grounds in ten minutes.”

“But the kids--”

“--will be fine. They’re asleep and this is important.”

Blaine and Lauren exchanged a look before slipping on shoes and walking to the grounds.

Steve was starting to talk and everyone was already there, including Puck. Shit.“You all know Noah, so I’ll get straight to the point.”

Jeff, Nick, and a few of the others looked up curiously, because not everyone there knew Puck, but apparently what Steve had to talk about was more important than an introduction to those people who didn’t.

“Whatever the hell is going on here, and I don’t want details, ends now. Noah is not supposed to be here, there are a bunch of you involved, and it’s affecting the way I run my camp. So it stops, do you hear me?”

Blaine looked down at his feet, seeing Kurt doing similar in his peripheral vision.

“I don’t want to know the hows, whys, or whens. I just want the people I employ to look after the children to act like adults for the remainder of time we’re here. There’s only a week to go and you-” Steve looked directly at Puck, “will leave the grounds immediately. You were all told at the beginning that sneaking around to each other’s dorms and what not would not be tolerated. So stick to your schedules and lights out by ten every night.” He eyed each of them in turn.

“Now go to your rooms. I didn’t think I would have to have this talk this year.” Steve left, motioning Puck to follow him, and Blaine turned to face where Kurt had been standing only seconds before. He was gone, as was almost everyone else.

Blaine had no idea how much Puck had managed to tell Kurt before they had been caught, and all he could do was hope that it had been enough.

\---

Thanks to the hectic nature of camp life and Steve keeping an even more watchful eye on everyone than usual, it wasn’t until two days later that Blaine finally had a chance to talk to Kurt. It was an unexpected moment, to say the least, as it happened when he had shampoo in his eye and was bare in the most literal sense. Showering always seemed to be an adventure there at camp.

“Who’s in here?” It was Kurt’s voice, to be sure.

“It’s Blaine,” he replied, trying not to inhale water while washing the shampoo out of his eye.

“Oh good. We should talk.” Kurt’s voice came again, along with the sound of the door closing in the stall next to Blaine’s. “I spoke to Puck the other night. I was surprised to see him, to put it mildly.”

Interested to see where he was going, and not wanting to assume anything, Blaine hummed in response.

“He told me you didn’t bring that stuff.” Blaine felt the urge to thank every deity he could think of, not caring if they existed or not. “Also that everything was completely his fault and that I should give you a chance.”

Blaine raised his eyebrows. He would have given almost anything right then and there to see Kurt’s face, but he was naked and that would have been so many shades of awkward. “You should know that I would never presume such a thing from anyone. You matter to me, Kurt.”  
“What?” Kurt asked, his tone sounding funny, like he was supressing a laugh.  
“You matter to me.” Blaine repeated, feeling a little silly repeating himself, especially when he was talking to a wall with no reaction. But he could lay it all out on the line then and see what Kurt would say to a date, or he could procrastinate until summer was over and miss any chance he may have had. There were far too many now or never moments at camp, as far as Blaine was concerned. “Kurt would you...” He breathed in deeply, and started again. “Kurt, would you be interested in going on a date with me? When we get back to Lima I mean, not here--”

He didn’t miss the little gasp from the next stall, and his heart felt like it was beating a thousand times a second while he waited for a reply.

“Yes.”

Blaine found himself grinning foolishly at the wall. “Awesome.”

Winding up his shower and slipping into some sweats and a hoodie, Blaine sat out on the little bench outside of the stalls. “It was nice talking to you, Kurt. It’s almost lights out, so I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Until tomorrow, then,” Kurt replied.

Blaine’s cheeks were sore from smiling so much, but it was worth it.

\---

Sleeping that night was easier, but with the morning came Friday and a certain amount of finality surrounded the campers as well as the counsellors. That group of campers was their last and that night was just for movies before the kids were picked up and packed off home the next day. Everyone had been well behaved since the lecture from Steve, and the campers hadn’t seemed to notice that anything had changed.

Time seemed to speed up, each activity feeling twice as fast being the last time they would do it. Blaine was almost missing those first few weeks, full of possibility and mischief, but all good things had to come to an end. He did have a chance to see Kurt during breakfast, and shy smiles were exchanged over cereal bowls from across the room. Then later, during arts and crafts. Again after lunch, while he and Lauren let the kids go for one last swim before closing up the pool for good.

During dinner, Kurt’s back was to him. Lauren shoved an elbow into Blaine’s side and told him off for swooning at the table. That came attached with some giggling and pointing from Jeff and Nick, who had somehow managed to be sitting next to each other. Blaine couldn’t see properly from the angle he was sitting, but he was guessing that their hand were linked beneath the table, if Nick trying to eat with his left hand and only succeeding in getting half his food to reach his mouth was any indication. 

There was a subdued calm settled around the campfire that night -- not much conversation, just companionship and the warm sense of belonging that came from being in a group together.

Saturday morning passed by in a flash, and before Blaine knew it they were chasing down errant belongings and saying goodbye to their charges one by one. The dorm was empty and echoing while he and Lauren packed up their own gear, decidedly less tidy in the suitcase than when they had arrived. He was going to have so much laundry to do when he got home.

Steve went through each of the dorms, setting out tasks for everyone who was left. Blaine had to arrange the cover to be put back over the pool, which he roped Lauren into helping him with, and packing up what was left in the kitchen with Margaret. After he’d done all that, leaving the fridge doors ajar and heading back to the newly cleaned out dorm, he saw each of the mattresses stood up for airing until the campsite was used again. That had been Lauren’s job. He walked past Jeff and Mike coming out of the shower block, smelling hideously of bleach and disinfectant, and crinkled his nose.

“Don’t look at me like that. We have a long car ride home tonight, Blaine,” Mike said, throwing a sponge at him and missing.

Blaine just laughed and continued on. Lauren had put all of their bags and sleeping gear out on the step to be moved to the car, so he picked them up, considering taking two trips but deciding against it and walked back to the hall to drop them in a heap by the door. There were several piles of luggage lying around the ground near open cars, and people milling around everywhere.

Jogging back to the dorm, he found Lauren finishing up the sweeping, almost ready for the dorm to be locked up. It was over, all the time spent in that little room together and walking back and forth between that and the shower block what felt like twenty times a day. Blaine wasn’t sure if he would miss it; having someone in his space all the time got tiresome, and Lauren was one hell of a personality.

She went to find Steve to check and lock their dorm, and Blaine made his way back to the parking lot to find Mike and get his stuff packed away. Kurt and Tina were filling his Navigator in the next space over.

“Psst, Blaine,” Mike whispered, beckoning him over. “Can we swap? I’d kinda like to drive Tina home, spend a bit of time alone together.” He looked hopeful, and Kurt stopped trying to wrestle the rest of Tina’s bags in his car.

“We’re going to have to re-pack this then, aren’t we?” he asked with a sigh.

Mike laughed. “Do you guys mind?”

Blaine looked at Kurt, who didn’t seem too put out while he unpacked the last few things and brought them over to Mike’s car. “If we must.”

“Oh, poor Kurt, having to spend hours locked in a car with Blaine. How will you survive?” Tina joked. Well, Blaine hoped she was joking, and Kurt’s cheeks took on a tinge of red.

“We’ll just have to see how far he makes it through my Wicked soundtrack before he decides he wants to walk,” Kurt shot right back.

“Good luck with that,” Mike said, adding, “Blaine’s playlist is just as bad as yours, if you ask me.”

“Oh really?” Kurt asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I can only imagine but I’ll guess we have the rest of the ride back to find out,” Blaine replied, and they shared a smile.

After a final debrief from Steve, they were on the road.  
Conversation flowed easily between them, and they alternated between their playlists. About an hour into the drive, Blaine was silently watching Kurt’s hand on the console, trying to remember what it felt like the last time he held it -- warm and soft. Gathering up the courage he had left, Blaine put his hand over Kurt’s, glad that he didn’t jump or pull it away. He could have asked, but what would be the fun in that?

They got to Blaine’s aunt and uncle’s house a little after sunset. Mike wasn’t there, but he and Tina had probably made a stop somewhere on the way back. Kurt hopped out to help Blaine with his bags, and put them on the driveway next to the car.

“Thank you, for bringing me home,” Blaine said, not quite sure whether to leave it there or ask about the date they had talked about.

“You’re welcome, Blaine. Thank you for being such good company,” Kurt replied, and Blaine smiled.

“Do you want my number?” he asked suddenly, just as Kurt was moving to get back into the car. Kurt turned around to face him and dug his phone out of his pocket. Blaine pulled out his own phone and entered a new contact as Kurt gave him his information. He sent off a blank message so that Kurt had his details and, before he could change his mind, pressed a quick kiss to Kurt’s cheek.

“We’ll talk soon, okay?” Blaine said, biting his lip. It seemed a little silly for him to still be nervous by that point, but Kurt nodded and got in the car, waving before setting off down the road.

Blaine stood at the curb, watching the Navigator until it signalled and turned a corner, going out of sight. Camp might have been over, but summer wasn’t. He typed out another message and sent it before slipping his phone away and taking his things into the house.

I hope you’re free next Friday, I do believe you promised me a date.

 

~End~

**Author's Note:**

> Masterpost on LJ:
> 
> http://pureklaination.livejournal.com/6119.html
> 
> Posted to Tumblr:
> 
> http://pureklaination.tumblr.com/post/32729483511/fortune-favours-the-brave


End file.
